There was plenty to do, although they had prepared themselves so well before the great snowfall came.  They made rude shovels of wood and enlarged the space they had cleared of snow.  Here, they fitted stones together, until they had a sort of rough furnace which, crude though it was, helped them greatly with their cooking.  They also pulled more brushwood from under the snow, and by its use saved the store they had heaped up for impossible days.  Then, by continued use of the bone needles and sinews, they managed to make cloaks for themselves of the bearskins.  They were rather shapeless garments, and they had little of beauty save in the rich fur itself, but they were wonderfully warm and that was what they wanted most.

Tayoga, after a while, began slow and painstaking work on a pair of snowshoes, expecting to devote many days to the task.

“The snow is so deep we cannot pass through it,” he said, “but I, at least, will pass upon it.  I cannot get the best materials, but what I have will serve.  I shall not go far, but I want to explore the country about us.”

Robert thought it a good plan, and helped as well as he could with the work.  They still stayed outdoors as much as possible, but the cold became intense, the temperature going almost to forty degrees below zero, the surface of the snow freezing and the boughs of the big trees about the valley becoming so brittle that they broke with sharp crashes beneath the weight of accumulated snow.  Then they paused long enough in the work on the snowshoes to make themselves gloves of buckskin, which were a wonderful help, as they labored in the fresh air.  Ear muffs and caps of bearskin followed.

“I feel some reluctance about using bearskin so much,” said Robert, “since the bears about us are inhabited by the souls of great warriors and are our friends.”

“But the bears that we killed did not belong here,” said Tayoga, “and were bears and nothing more.  It was right for us to slay them because the bear was sent by Manitou to be a support for the Indian with his flesh and his pelt.”

“But how do you know that the bears we killed were just bears and bears only?”

“Because, if they had not been we would not have killed them.”

Thus were the qualms of young Lennox quieted and he used his bearskin cap, gloves and cloak without further scruple.  The snowshoes were completed and Tayoga announced that he would start early the next morning.

“I may be gone three or four days, Dagaeoga,” he said, “but I will surely return.  I shall avoid danger, and do you be careful also.”

“Don’t fear for me,” said Robert.  “I’m not likely to go farther than the brook, since there’s no great sport in breaking your way through snow that comes to your waist, and which, moreover, is covered with a thick sheet of ice.  Don’t trouble your mind about me, Tayoga, I won’t roam from home.”