Then Tom Ross demanded a look at the game.

After the look he asked for instruction.
"I saw a set uv them fellers once when I wuz at Fort Pitt," he said, "but I never thought the time would come when I'd play with 'em.

Push up the fire thar a little, will you, Jim, so I kin see better." Paul and Henry looked at each other and smiled.

Soon Tom himself, the senior of the party, was absorbed in the new game, and it was a happy thought of Paul's to introduce it, even with the rude figures which were the best that they could make.
Paul brought up again the next morning the subject of their weather prospects, and Tom and Henry agreed with the others in predicting a great deal of snow and cold.
"All signs show it," said Henry.

"The rabbits are burrowing deeper than usual under the bushes, and I notice that the birds have built their nests uncommonly thick.