noon
They braced themselves to the work and plodded on , taking turns at going first to break the road . The sun shone down in a white dazzle . There was no heat in it , but the glare was so strong that they had to pull their caps low over their eyes for fear of snow-blindness -- the most deadly enemy of the winter traveler in the North . During the forenoon they thought they made hardly more than ten miles , and at noon they halted , made a fire and boiled tea . The hot drink and an hour 's rest made them ready for the road again . Twice that afternoon they had to make a long détour through the woods to avoid unfrozen rapids , and once the brush was so dense that they had to cut a way for the toboggan with the axe . Once , too , the ice suddenly cracked under Fred 's foot , and he flung himself forward just in time to avoid the black water gushing up through the snowed-over air-hole .