“Now,” said Jonas, “where shall we put him till I come back?”

Oliver looked across the brook, and saw there, upon a bank, under some trees, a spot which was bare.  The reason why it was bare was, that the snow had nearly all blown off during the storms; and then the sun, which had been shining for some days so pleasantly, had melted away what there had been left; and now the ground was bare, and almost dry.  But the difficulty was to get to it; for it was upon the other side of the stream, and the bed of the stream was filled with water and ice.

“I wouldn’t lead him over there,” said Oliver.  “I think you had better go home, and not do any thing about the timber.”

“No,” said Jonas.

“Why, father will not think you did wrong to give it up, when we got into such trouble,” said Oliver.

“No, I don’t suppose he would; but I’d rather carry him back an answer, if I can.”

“Then let me go with you,” said Oliver.

“Why, it is a long and very hard walk,” said Jonas.  “There is no work so hard as travelling in soft snow, without snow-shoes.  If we had a pair of snow-shoes, we could get along very well.”

“Did you ever see any snow-shoes?” said Oliver.

“No,” replied Jonas, “but I have read about them.  They are very large and flat, and your foot stands in the middle of them, and so presses them upon the snow; and they are so large that they will not sink in very far.”

While Jonas was saying this, he was climbing down to the bank of the brook, with a pole in his hands, with which he was going to see if he could find firm footing, for the horse to go across.

“Yes,” said he, punching his pole down to the bottom of the brook; “yes, it isn’t deep.  The old General will get down here very well, I think.”

So he and Oliver trampled a sort of path down to the brook, and then they led the old General down.  He seemed a little reluctant, at first, to step into the water.  However, he soon went in, and walked over, and Oliver fastened him to a tree, so that he could stand upon the bare piece of ground.  Jonas then pulled the sleigh out of the road, so that it should not be in the way, if any body should come along with any other team; then he bade Oliver good-by, and went on alone.

Jonas traveled along, as well as he could, through the snow, though he found it very laborious walking.  In some places, he found hard footing for some distance; but then he would sink down again for several successive steps.  After a short distance, he got out of the deep drift, which had prevented the horse from going on, and then he could advance faster.  There was a singular-looking track in the road.  It consisted of a smooth groove in the snow, as if the end of a large log had been dragged along.

It was, in fact, made by a log which had been drawn along that road towards the mill.  One end of the log had been placed upon a sled, and the other left to drag along in the snow; and this was what made the smooth groove, which Jonas observed.  He did not see it before, because the man who drove the sled had turned out of the main road, into a by-way across the fields, to avoid the deep drift where Jonas’s horse got into difficulty.