The great hall on the lower floor was arranged so as to have a broad
open fireplace at either end. These fires were kept burning day and
night and the great heaps of glowing logs made the hall, and most of
the upper rooms, very comfortable indeed. The walls of this hall were
hung with snowshoes, Canadian toboggans--so light, apparently, that
they would not hold one man, let alone four, but very, very strongly
built--guns, Indian bows and sheaf of arrows, fish-spears, and a
conglomeration of hunting gear for much of which Ruth Fielding did
not even know the names, let alone their uses.

Outside the snow had been cleared away immediately around the great
log house and a wide path was cut through the drifts down to a small
lake, or pond. In coming from Rattlesnake Hill the night before with
the old hermit, and the boy who called himself Fred Hatfield, they
had come down a long incline in sight of the camp. Now, Ruth saw that
a course had been made level upon that hillside, banked up on either
side with dykes of snow, and water poured over the whole to make a
perfect slide. There was a starting platform at the top and the
course was more than half a mile in length, Long Jerry told her.

But when she had seen all these things sleigh bells were heard and
Ruth ran out to welcome her friends.




CHAPTER XI

THE FROST GAMES