I've allus told you, Paul, that you an' me wuz superior to our surroundings.

Ef Jim Hart wuz locked up in a schoolhouse all his life he'd never be an eddicated man, while ez fur me, I'm one without ever gittin' a chance, jest because it's in my natur'." Paul laughed at them both, and drew a little closer to the bed of red coals.

The warmth within and the cold without appealed to all the elements of his vivid and imaginative nature.

Not for worlds would he have missed being on this great adventure with these daring men.
"I'm a-thinkin'," said Ross, as he lifted the buffalo robe over their door and looked out, "that ez soon ez the wind dies the lake will freeze over." "An' it will be harder than ever then," said Paul, "to catch fish." "I guess we kin do about ez well through holes in the ice," said Ross.
Ross's prediction soon came true.

When they awoke on the morning two days afterwards the lake curved about them in a white and glittering sheet, reflecting back a brilliant sun in a million dazzling rays.
"I'm glad all of our party are here on the island together," said Henry, "because the ice isn't thick enough to support a man's weight, and it isn't thin enough to let a canoe be pushed through it.