The tall Indian brave wrapped his blanket still closer about his figure, and gazed out at the huge panorama stretched before him. There lay the glistening surface of the two lakes, now clad with ice from end to end, and fringed all about by continuous forest, which grew up to the banks and cast there a deep shadow, which looked black against the white of the ice. And away in the distance the faint reflection from another long expanse of frozen water, Lake Champlain, called after that famous Frenchman who had done so much for New France, and who had founded Quebec. It, too, was clad in a garment of white, snow hanging to the trees, and in the dull wintry green of the pines, which grew thickly there. For background there was the blue haze of the Adirondacks and the Green Mountains, now the favourite haunt of thousands of holiday-seeking Americans. And still farther to the north, buried in the dull horizon and behind it, lay the Richelieu river, with its few forts, and its _seigneuries_, where the _gentilhommes_ of this new colony, the lately-constructed noblesse, sat in their palisaded houses watching as their _habitants_ cooked their food or went a-hunting. Then it was that these noblesse might don doe-skin leggings, shirt, and moccasins, and clad in the thick fur coats, with hoods, worn by the Indians of Canada, and with thick mittens slung about their necks, might venture into the forest with the _habitants_ and enjoy all the excitement of the chase. Yes, they could hunt and fight, but work, never! Each one was the seigneur, and the lords of Old and New France never blistered their palms nor dirtied their fingers.
"We're almost ready," said Steve, as he stood beside the tall Silver Fox, staring out at the scene below. "What we want now is a wall of snow here in front. How are we to set about building it?"
"It's as easy as fallin'," answered Jim at once. "Look up there, Cap'n."
He pointed to the leaden sky above, and held his hand up for a minute.
"Wind's from the north, Cap'n," he said, "and it's goin' to snow. To-morrow things'll be properly covered, and ef we jest build a wall of branches at the face of this nest, waal, it'll be covered afore the mornin'. Reckon this place'll be lookin' jest natural when the light comes again."