Shortly the camp was completed.  Before the fire, impaled on sticks, hung the frozen whitefish thawing out for the dogs.  Each animal was to receive two.  The kettle boiled.  Meat sizzled over the coals.  A piece of ice, whittled to a point, dripped drinking-water like a faucet.  The snow-bank ramparts were pink in the glow.  They reflected appreciably the heat of the fire, though they were not in the least affected by it, and remained flaky to the touch.  A comfortable sizzling and frying and bubbling and snapping filled the little dome of firelight, beyond which was the wilderness.  Weary with an immense fatigue the three lay back waiting for their supper to be done.  The dogs, too, waited patiently just at the edge of the heat, their bushy tails covering the bottoms of their feet and their noses, as nature intended.  Only Mack, the hound, lacking this protection, but hardened to greater exposure, lay flat on his side, his paws extended to the blaze.  They all rested quietly, worn out, apparently without the energy to move a single hair.  But now Dick, rising, took down from its switch the first of the whitefish.  Instantly every dog was on his feet.  Their eyes glared yellow, their jaws slavered, they leaped toward the man who held the fish high above his head and kicked energetically at the struggling animals.  Sam took the dog whip to help.  Between them the food was distributed, two fish to a dog.  The beasts took each his share to a place remote from the others and bolted it hastily, returning at once on the chance of a further distribution, or the opportunity to steal from his companions.  After a little more roaming about, growling and suspicious sniffing, they again settled down one by one to slumber.

Almost immediately after supper the three turned in, first removing and hanging before the fire the duffel and moccasins worn during the day.  These were replaced by larger and warmer sleep moccasins lined with fur.  The warm-lined coverings they pulled up over and around them completely, to envelop even their heads.  This arrangement is comfortable only after long use has accustomed one to the half-suffocation; but it is necessary, not only to preserve the warmth of the body, but also to protect the countenance from freezing.  At once they fell into exhausted sleep.

As though they had awaited a signal, the dogs arose and proceeded to investigate the camp.  Nothing was too trivial to escape their attention.  Billy found a tiny bit of cooked meat.  Promptly he was called on to protect his discovery against a vigorous onslaught from the hound and the other husky.  Over and over the fighting dogs rolled, snorting and biting, awakening the echoes of the forest, even trampling the sleepers, who, nevertheless, did not stir.  In the mean time, Claire, uninvolved, devoured the morsel.  The trouble gradually died down.  One after another the animals dug themselves holes in the snow, where they curled up, their bushy tails over their noses and their fore paws.  Only Mack, the hound with the wrinkled face and long, pendent ears, unendowed with such protection, crept craftily between his sleeping masters.