Their lower limbs were protected by the coarse leggings
which they had woni in so many previous hunts during the
past winter, if that might be called past which had returned,



THE WBPT or WI8H-TON-WI8H. 12S

weakened bat little of its keenness, and bearing all the out-
ward marks of January. When last seen, Eben Dudley,
the heaviest of the band, was moving firmly on the crust of
the snow, with a step as sure as if he had trodden on the
froien earth itself. More than one of the maidens declared,
that though tkey had endeavored to trace the footsteps of
the hunters from the palisadoes, it would have exceeded
even the sagacity of an Indian eye to follow their trail
along the icy path they travelled.
Hour ailer hour passed without bringing tidings from the
chase. The reports of fire-arms had indeed been occasion-
ally heard, ringing among the arches of the woods ; and
broken echoes were, for some hours, rolling from one recess
of the hills to another. But even these signs of the pre-
sence of the hunters gradually receded with the advance of
the day ; and, long ere the sun had gained the meridian,
and its warmth, at that advanced season not without power,
was shod into the valley, the whole range of the adjoining
forest lay in its ordinary dall and solemn silence.
