He was
blue of eye, and his long hair was golden, and it was a pleasure to look
upon his lusty freshness. A new moon was thrusting a dim horn above the
white line of close-packed snow-capped pines which ringed the camp and
segregated it from all the world. Overhead, so clear it was and cold,
the stars danced with quick, pulsating movements. To the southeast an
evanescent greenish glow heralded the opening revels of the aurora
borealis. Two men, in the immediate foreground, lay upon the bearskin
which was their bed. Between the skin and naked snow was a six-inch
layer of pine boughs. The blankets were rolled back. For shelter, there
was a fly at their backs,--a sheet of canvas stretched between two trees
and angling at forty-five degrees. This caught the radiating heat from
the fire and flung it down upon the skin. Another man sat on a sled,
drawn close to the blaze, mending moccasins. To the right, a heap of
frozen gravel and a rude windlass denoted where they toiled each day in
dismal groping for the pay-streak. To the left, four pairs of snowshoes
stood erect, showing the mode of travel which obtained when the stamped
snow of the camp was left behind.
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