The Peterkin papers

by Lucretia P. Hale

  THE PETERKINS SNOWED-UP.

  MRS. PETERKIN awoke one morning to find a heavy snow-storm raging. Thewind had flung the snow against the windows, had heaped it up around thehouse, and thrown it into huge white drifts over the fields, coveringhedges and fences.

  Mrs. Peterkin went from one window to the other to look out; but nothingcould be seen but the driving storm and the deep white snow. Even Mr.Bromwick's house, on the opposite side of the street, was hidden by theswift-falling flakes.

  "What shall I do about it?" thought Mrs. Peterkin. "No roadscleared out! Of course there'll be no butcher and no milkman!"

  The first thing to be done was to wake up all the family early; forthere was enough in the house for breakfast, and there was no knowingwhen they would have anything more to eat.

  It was best to secure the breakfast first.

  So she went from one room to the other, as soon as it was light, wakingthe family, and before long all were dressed and downstairs.

  And then all went round the house to see what had happened.

  All the water-pipes that there were were frozen. The milk was frozen.They could open the door into the wood-house; but the wood-house doorinto the yard was banked up with snow; and the front door, and thepiazza door, and the side door stuck. Nobody could get in or out!

  Meanwhile, Amanda, the cook, had succeeded in making the kitchen fire,but had discovered there was no furnace coal.

  "The furnace coal was to have come to-day," said Mrs. Peterkin,apologetically.

  "Nothing will come to-day," said Mr. Peterkin, shivering.

  But a fire could be made in a stove in the dining-room.

  All were glad to sit down to breakfast and hot coffee. The little boyswere much pleased to have "ice-cream" for breakfast.

  "When we get a little warm," said Mr. Peterkin, "we will consider whatis to be done."

  "I am thankful I ordered the sausages yesterday," said Mrs. Peterkin. "Iwas to have had a leg of mutton to-day."

  "Nothing will come to-day," said Agamemnon, gloomily.

  "Are these sausages the last meat in the house?" asked Mr. Peterkin.

  "Yes," said Mrs. Peterkin.

  The potatoes also were gone, the barrel of apples empty, and she hadmeant to order more flour that very day.

  "Then we are eating our last provisions," said Solomon John, helpinghimself to another sausage.

  "I almost wish we had stayed in bed," said Agamemnon.

  "I thought it best to make sure of our breakfast first," repeated Mrs.Peterkin.

  "Shall we literally have nothing left to eat?" asked Mr. Peterkin.

  "There's the pig!" suggested Solomon John.

  Yes, happily, the pigsty was at the end of the wood-house, and could bereached under cover.

  But some of the family could not eat fresh pork.

  "We should have to 'corn' part of him," said Agamemnon.

  "My butcher has always told me," said Mrs. Peterkin, "that if I wanted aham I must keep a pig. Now we have the pig, but have not the ham!"

  "Perhaps we could 'corn' one or two of his legs," suggested one of thelittle boys.

  "We need not settle that now," said Mr. Peterkin. "At least the pigwill keep us from starving."

  The little boys looked serious; they were fond of their pig.

  "If we had only decided to keep a cow," said Mrs. Peterkin.

  "Alas! yes," said Mr. Peterkin, "one learns a great many things toolate!"

  "Then we might have had ice-cream all the time!" exclaimed the littleboys.

  Indeed, the little boys, in spite of the prospect of starving, werequite pleasantly excited at the idea of being snowed-up, and hurriedthrough their breakfasts that they might go and try to shovel out a pathfrom one of the doors.

  "I ought to know more about the water-pipes," said Mr. Peterkin. "Now, Ishut off the water last night in the bath-room, or else I forgot to; andI ought to have shut it off in the cellar."

  The little boys came back. Such a wind at the front door, they weregoing to try the side door.

  "Another thing I have learned to-day," said Mr. Peterkin, "is not tohave all the doors on one side of the house, because the storm blows thesnow against all the doors."

  Solomon John started up.

  "Let us see if we are blocked up on the east side of the house!" heexclaimed.

  "Of what use," asked Mr. Peterkin, "since we have no door on the eastside?"

  "We could cut one," said Solomon John.

  "Yes, we could cut a door," exclaimed Agamemnon.

  "But how can we tell whether there is any snow there?" asked ElizabethEliza,--"for there is no window."

  In fact, the east side of the Peterkins' house formed a blank wall. Theowner had originally planned a little block of semi-detached houses. Hehad completed only one, very semi and very detached.

  "It is not necessary to see," said Agamemnon, profoundly; "of course,if the storm blows against this side of the house, the house itself mustkeep the snow from the other side."

  "Yes," said Solomon John, "there must be a space clear of snowon the east side of the house, and if we could open a way to that "--"Wecould open a way to the butcher," said Mr. Peterkin, promptly.

  Agamemnon went for his pick-axe. He had kept one in the house ever sincethe adventure of the dumb-waiter.

  "What part of the wall had we better attack?" asked Mr. Peterkin.

  Mrs. Peterkin was alarmed.

  "What will Mr. Mudge, the owner of the house, think of it?" sheexclaimed. "Have we a right to injure the wall of the house?"

  "It is right to preserve ourselves from starving," said Mr. Peterkin."The drowning man must snatch at a straw!"

  "It is better that he should find his house chopped a little when thethaw comes," said Elizabeth Eliza, "than that he should find us lyingabout the house, dead of hunger, upon the floor."

  Mrs. Peterkin was partially convinced.

  The little boys came in to warm their hands. They had not succeeded inopening the side door, and were planning trying to open the door fromthe wood-house to the garden.

  "That would be of no use," said Mrs. Peterkin, "the butcher cannot getinto the garden."

  "But we might shovel off the snow," suggested one of the littleboys, "and dig down to some of last year's onions."

  Meanwhile, Mr. Peterkin, Agamemnon, and Solomon John had been bringingtogether their carpenter's tools, and Elizabeth Eliza proposed using agouge, if they would choose the right spot to begin.

  The little boys were delighted with the plan, and hastened to find,--one,a little hatchet, and the other a gimlet. Even Amanda armed herself witha poker.

  "It would be better to begin on the ground floor," said Mr.Peterkin.

  "Except that we may meet with a stone foundation," said Solomon John.

  "If the wall is thinner upstairs," said Agamemnon, "it will do as wellto cut a window as a door, and haul up anything the butcher may bringbelow in his cart."

  Everybody began to pound a little on the wall to find a favorableplace, and there was a great deal of noise. The little boys actually cuta bit out of the plastering with their hatchet and gimlet. Solomon Johnconfided to Elizabeth Eliza that it reminded him of stories of prisonerswho cut themselves free, through stone walls, after days and days ofsecret labor.

  Mrs. Peterkin, even, had come with a pair of tongs in her hand. She wasinterrupted by a voice behind her.

  "Here's your leg of mutton, marm!"

  It was the butcher. How had he got in?

  "Excuse me, marm, for coming in at the side door, but the back gateis kinder blocked up. You were making such a pounding I could not makeanybody hear me knock at the side door."

  "But how did you make a path to the door?" asked Mr. Peterkin. "You musthave been working at it a long time. It must be near noon now."

  "I'm about on regular time," answered the butcher. "The townteam has cleared out the high road, and the wind has been down the lasthalf-hour. The storm is over."

  True enough! The Pe
terkins had been so busy inside the house they hadnot noticed the ceasing of the storm outside.

  "And we were all up an hour earlier than usual," said Mr. Peterkin,when the butcher left. He had not explained to the butcher why he had apickaxe in his hand.

  "If we had lain abed till the usual time," said Solomon John, "we shouldhave been all right."

  "For here is the milkman!" said Elizabeth Eliza, as a knock was nowheard at the side door.

  "It is a good thing to learn," said Mr. Peterkin, "not to get up anyearlier than is necessary."