“Yes, we must go.  We are going to Ochre Lake for fish.  Miles says there are heaps there to be had for the catching, and the dogs are getting short of food.  We have worked them very hard this winter, so they have needed more to eat, I suppose,” Katherine replied.  Then she went out to help her brother to bring the stores in, and Mrs. M’Kree came to assist also.

“Ochre Lake is a good long way off, so I mustn’t keep you if you are going there.  A good six miles from here it must be, if you follow the river,” said Mrs. M’Kree; then made a grab at the packet of toffee in Jamie’s chubby hand, for he was evidently intent on eating it all himself, and so leaving none for the others.

“We shall not follow the river, but take the short cut through the woods; and we shall go fast too, for the dogs will travel light, you see,” Katherine said.  Then picking up the fish spears and the ice saw she glided on ahead, while Miles and the dogs went racing after her.

At first, when they left the boatbuilder’s house behind, it was wilderness without a sign of life, but after they had gone two or three miles, footprints of various sizes appeared on the snow.  There were marks of wolf, of wolverine, of fox, with smaller prints which could only have been made by little creatures like the mink, ermine, and such tiny fry, that, clad in fur white like the snow, scurried hither and thither through the silent wastes hunting for food, yet finding in many cases swift death through the skill of the trapper.  At length the lake was reached.  In summer it was a sheet of muddy yellow water abounding in fish, and many acres in extent.  Now it was a wide snowfield, except at one end, where for some unexplained reason it was open water still.  This was the part at which they arrived, and Katherine halted on the bank with an exclamation of surprise.  “Why, we shan’t need the saw at all; it is open water!”

“The ice at the edge is too thin to stand upon, and we mustn’t take risks here, for Father says there is a whirlpool at this end, and it is the constant motion of the water that keeps it from freezing,” Miles answered; and taking the saw from Katherine he commenced making a hole in the ice a few yards from the open water.

The dog’s were lying panting on the bank as if quite exhausted, but their ears were perked up, and their eyes were very wide open, for they quite understood what was going on, and the prospect of fish freshly caught was very welcome after their months of living on the dried article.  When a hole had been cut in the ice, Katherine went to stand by it and spear the fish which immediately crowded to the surface as if anxious to be caught.  Miles went to a little distance, where he cut another hole for himself, and for the next hour the two worked as hard as they could at spearing fish, then throwing them on the snow, where they quickly froze stiff.  The water seemed entirely alive with fish, which could only be accounted for by the fact that the main part of the lake, which was shallow, was frozen solid, so that all the fish had been forced to the end where the moving water did not freeze.