Then back came the frost—­sharp, snappy and robust.  The air cleared like magic.  The sun shone out of a perfectly clear sky.  Just to put one’s head out of the door make the blood tingle.

Meanwhile both the girls and boys had found plenty of interesting things to do indoors, as Uncle Dick had prophesied.  Especially the boys.  Under the teaching of Uncle Dick and Mr. Canary they had learned to string snowshoes.  Mr. Canary had the frames and the thongs of which the webs are woven.  Even Timothy neglected the library to engage in this fascinating work.

Of course, the girls must have webs as well.  Betty and Bobby were particularly eager to learn to walk on snowshoes and, as Bob Henderson said, they “pestered” the boys until sufficient pairs of webs were made to enable the entire party to try walking on them when the time was ripe.

On the third morning, just at dawn, there was a heavy snow squall for an hour.  It left about four inches of downy snow upon the hard-packed and slippery surface of the drifts.

“This is an ideal condition,” said Mr. Gordon with enthusiasm.  “My feet itch to be off on the webs myself.  After breakfast we will try them out.  Now remember the rules I have been telling you, and see how well you can all learn to shuffle over this snow.”

Thoughtful Bob had strung an extra pair of shoes for Ida.  He knew that Betty did not want the English girl left out of their good times.  And all the crowd liked Ida.  Although she was in the main a very quiet girl, as one grew to know her she proved to possess charming qualities both of mind and heart.

Ida was not as warmly dressed for venturing into the open as the other girls.  But Mrs. Canary, one of the kindest souls in the world, mended this defect.  She furnished Ida with a fur coat and gloves that secured her from frostbite.

The whole party turned out gaily.  Having been confined to the house for almost forty-eight hours, they were as full of life as colts.  But in a few minutes the nine of them were on snowshoes and watched and instructed by Uncle Dick were learning their first lesson in the rather ticklish art of scuffling over the soft snow without tripping and plunging headlong into it.

Not that there were not many laughable accidents.  The capers both boys and girls involuntarily cut led to shouts of laughter, and sometimes to a little pain.  For the frozen crust underneath the light surface snow offered a rather hard foundation when one fell flat.

The necessary falls incident to learning the right trick of handling one’s self on snowshoes soon cured the first enthusiasm of several of the party.  Louise, for instance, found it too strenuous for her liking.  And Timothy got a bump on the back of his head that no phrenologist could have easily described.

The second day, however, Betty, Bobby and Ida, with Bob and Tommy Tucker, were just as enthusiastic on the subject of snowshoeing as at first.  While the others swept off a part of the lake just below the Outlook, the snowshoeing party set off on their first real hike through the woods; and that hike led to an unexpected adventure.