We had left home early Sunday morning and knew that our folks would be greatly worried about all three of us.
As the day passed, the stream rose steadily until the water was nearly up to the camp door.
"If only we had a boat, we could put Halse in it and go home," Addison said.
We discussed making a raft, for if we could navigate the stream we could descend it to within four miles of the old farm.

But the roaring yellow torrent was clearly so tumultuous that no raft that we could build would hold together for a minute; and we resigned ourselves to pass another night in the camp.
The end of the thaw was at hand, however; at sunset the sky lightened, and during the evening the stars came out.

At midnight, while replenishing the fire, I heard smart gusts of wind blowing from the northwest.

It was clearing off cold.

Noticing that it seemed very light outside, I went to the door and saw the bright arch of a splendid aurora spanning the whole sky.