CHAPTER XXI
ROWDY
About the time Neale O'Neil was asking his very pertinent questionabout the whereabouts of Sammy and Tess and Dot, that trio hadstopped, breathless and not a little frightened, in a big drift atwhat seemed the bottom of a deep hole.
The snow swirled about them so, and they seemed to have come so fardown from the place where they had pushed off on the sled, that theybelieved it was a deep hole; and there seemed no possibility ofgetting out of it.
"I--I guess," quavered Dot, "that we'll just have to lie right downhere and let the snow cover us all--all up."
"I do wish, child, when you get into trouble that you wouldn't give upall hope, right first off!" exclaimed Tess, rather exasperated at hersister. "Of course we are not going to give up and lie down in thissnow."
"Of course not!" echoed Sammy Pinkney.
Nevertheless, Sammy experienced a chill up and down his spine, and theshort hairs at the back of his neck stiffened. It was borne upon hismind all of a sudden that they were lost--utterly lost! He could notunderstand how they had got off of the straight path to Red DeerLodge; but he was very sure that they had done so and, as far as heknew, they were miles and miles away from that shelter and from theirfriends.
Yet there seemed nothing to do but keep on through the snow--as longas they could press forward. Tess was quite as plucky as he madebelieve to be. And they could haul Dot a little way at a time on thesled.
"But we're going on, Sammy, without getting anywhere," was Tess' verywise observation. "I think we ought to scrouge down under somethinguntil the snow stops."
"Just like the Babes in the Woods," wailed Dot, who knew all thenursery stories.
"Do be still!" cried her sister, quite tartly. "Sammy and I are goingto find you a nice place to stop, Dot."
"Well, I hope it's a place with a fire in it, 'cause I'm cold,"complained the smallest Corner House girl.
They all wished for a fire and shelter, but the older ones feared withreason that both comforts would not be immediately found. Sammy hadnot ventured forth this time prepared for all emergencies, as he hadthe time that Dot and he ran away to sail piratically the canal. Hehad no means of making a fire, even if he could find fuel.
Sammy was not without fertility of ideas, however; and these to apractical end. It must never be said of him, when the lost party gotback to Red Deer Lodge, that he had not done his duty toward hiscompanions.
He saw that the lower branches of some of the big spruce trees sweptthe snow--indeed, their ends were drifted over in places. Under thosetrees were shelters that would break both the wind and the snow. Hesaid this to Tess, and she agreed.
"But we must keep a hole open to look out of," she said. "Otherwise wewon't see the folks when they come hunting for us."
"Je-ru-sa-_lem_! If they come along this road while it's snowing likethis lookin' for us, we'd never see 'em," muttered the boy.
But he kept this opinion to himself. Vigorous action claimed SammyPinkney almost immediately. While Dot "sniffled," as he called it, onthe half-buried sled, Sammy started to dig under the boughs of a treenear at hand.
The wind seemed to be less boisterous here, but the snow was driftingrapidly. Back of the tree the steep hillside rose abruptly, somewhatsheltering the spot.
Sammy burrowed through the drift like a dog seeking a rabbit. He founda way between two branches of the spruce, over which the snow hadpacked hard at a previous fall. He had to break away fronds of thetough branches to open a hole into the dark interior.
"Come on!" he shouted, half smothered by the snow he was pawing out."Here's a hole."
"Oh, Sammy! suppose there should be something in there?" gasped Tess,her lips close to his ear.
At this suggestion Master Sammy drew back with some precipitation.
"Aw, Tess! what d'you want to say such things to a feller for?" hegrowled. "If there is anything in there we'll find it out soonenough."
Dot's sharp ears had heard something of this. She shrieked:
"Oh! Is it mice? I hm afraid of mice, and I won't go in there till youdrive them all out, Sammy."
"Je-ru-sa-_lem_!" murmured Sammy, with vast disgust. "Don't girls beateverything?"
"I don't care! I don't like mice," reiterated the smallest CornerHouse girl.
"Huh!" declared Sammy, wickedly, "maybe there'll be wolves underthere."
"Wolfs? Well, I haven't my Alice-doll here, so I don't care aboutwolfs. But mice I am afraid of!"
At that Sammy took a deep breath, gritted his teeth, and dived out ofsight. He found that there was quite a sharp incline over hard snow tothe bottom of the hole. All around the trunk of the tree, and next toit, was bare, hard ground. It made a roomy shelter, and it was just aswarm as any house could be without a fire.
There was a quantity of dry and dead branches under here to scratchhim and tear at his clothing. Sammy broke these off as he crawledaround the tree, making the way less difficult for the little girlswhen they should enter.
A little light entered by the hole down which he had plunged. It madethe interior of the strange shelter of a murky brownness, not at allhelpful in "seeing things."
Sammy was quite sure there was no wolf housed in here; but about themice or other small rodents he was not so sure.
However, he called to the little girls cheerfully to come down, andDot immediately scrambled in, feet first. Tess followed her sisterwith less precipitation. Like Sammy, she felt the burden of theirsituation much more than did Dot. "Sufficient unto the day is the evilthereof," was Dot's opinion.
Sammy crawled out again and rescued the sled which was already buriedin the snow. He dragged it to the opening and left it right over thehole so as to keep the snow from drifting in upon them.
"But it makes it so dark, Sammy!" said Tess, a little sharply.
"Wait a while. You can see better pretty soon. Your eyes get used tothe dark--just like you went down cellar at night for a hod of coal."
"Oh, I wouldn't!" declared Dot. "But I'm not afraid of the dark. It'snothing you can feel."
So they were very cozy and fairly warm under the tree. Soon the snowhad heaped so thickly over the mouth of their shelter that they couldnot even hear the wind.
They had eaten a good lunch. Sammy had some nuts in his pockets. Itwas now about four o'clock. They were not likely to suffer foranything needful for some time. And, of course, neither of the threethought that their stay under the spruce tree would be for long.
"If the snow doesn't stop pretty soon, and so we can get out and findthe way home, Neale O'Neil and Aggie will come for us," Dot said, withconsiderable cheerfulness for her. "I'm all warm now, and I don'tcare."
Sammy did not feel altogether as sure that they would escape from thedifficulty so easily; but he did not openly express his belief. Hewas, like the little girls, glad to have found shelter. Withprovisions and a fire, he said, they could stay here like Crusoes.
"You know, Robinson Crusoe lived in a cave, and in a hut. And he wasall alone till he got some goats and a Man Friday."
"We might have brought Billy Bumps along," said Dot thoughtfully.
"I guess I wouldn't want to live with an old goat," Tess observed,with scorn.
They had no means of measuring the passage of time, and of course itseemed that "hours and hours" must have passed before Sammy tried tolook out through the opening the first time.
And this was no easy work. The snow had gathered so quickly and packeddown so hard upon the sled that the boy could scarcely raise it.Finally, by backing under the sled and rising up with it on hisshoulders, the sturdy little fellow broke through the drift.
"I got it!" he shouted back to Tess and Dot. "But, oh, Je-ru-sa-_lem_!ain't it snowin' though? Bet it never snowed so hard before. I guesswe'll have to stay here till they dig us out."
"Oh, Sammy! All night?" gasped Dot.
"Well, I don't know about that. But until this old snow stops,anyway."
He, nor the little girls, scarcely appreciated the
fact that the worstblizzard of the winter had broken over that territory, and that trailsand paths were being utterly obliterated. The keenest scented dog, andthe most experienced woodsman, could not have traced the threechildren to their present shelter.
Sammy came in and fixed the sled again to keep out the snow. He feltpretty serious--for him. Sammy Pinkney was not in the habit of lookingfor the worst to happen. Quite the contrary.
Yet he could not throw off anxiety as easily as Dot could. As long asshe was not hungry, and was warm, the smallest Corner House girl feltquite cheerful.
They could see a little better in their cozy nest now, and beingassured that there were no mice, thought of other wild creatures ofthe forest did not disturb Dot Kenway.
"Let's play something," said Dot. "Cum-ge-cum!"
"What do you come by?" asked Tess quickly. This was an old, old gameof guessing that Aunt Sarah Maltby had taught the little folks.
"I come by the letter 'S,'" declared Dot.
"Snow," guessed Sammy promptly.
"No."
"It's got to be the 'nitial of something in this--this house," Tessobserved. "Shoes, Dottie?"
"No. 'Tisn't shoes. And 'tis in the house--if you call this a house."
"Shirt," Sammy declared.
"Nopy!"
"Sled?" guessed Tess.
"No, it is not 'sled,'" said the littlest girl.
"Stockin's?" suggested Sammy. "I've got a hole in one o' mine. Feelslike my big toe was stranglin' to death, so it does."
"S-s-s--"
"Oh, stop!" shrieked Dot suddenly. "What's that at the door?"
The two little girls shrieked again and scrambled behind the trunk ofthe tree. Sammy was just as scared as a child could be, but he satright where he was and watched the dim light grow at the hole overwhich he had pulled the sled.
Something was scratching there, dragging the sled away from over thehole in the snowdrift. Sammy did not know that even the hungriestanimal in the forest was snugly housed during this storm. Thecreatures of the wild do not hunt when the weather is so boisterous.
It might have been a wolf, or a bear, or a lynx, _or a tiger_, as faras the small boy knew. Just the same, having the responsibility ofTess and Dot on his mind, he had to stay and face the unknown.
Suddenly a voice spoke from without. It said with much disgust:
"Oh, shut up your squalling. I'm not going to bite you."
"Je-ru-sa-_lem_!" murmured Sammy. "What's this?"
In a minute he was reassured, for the sled was torn away and a headand shoulders appeared down the opening through the drift.
"Hello!" exclaimed the voice again. "How did you get here? How many ofyou are there?"
"Two girls and a boy. And we slid here," said Sammy, gulping down abig lump in his throat.
"_Girls?_" gasped the stranger, who seemed to be very little olderthan Sammy himself. "Girls out in this blizzard?"
"No. We're all safe in here under the tree," said Sammy, with someindignation. "I wouldn't let 'em stay out in the storm."
"Oh!" exclaimed the stranger. "And do you intend to stay here till itstops snowing?"
"Why not?" demanded Sammy.
"That won't be until tomorrow--maybe next day," was the cheerfulresponse. "I guess you don't know much about storms up here in thewoods."
"Nope. We come from Milton."
"Oh!" exclaimed the other. "You're some of that bunch from Red DeerLodge, aren't you?"
"Ye--yes, sir," Tess interposed politely. "Do you suppose you couldshow us the way home?"
"Just now I couldn't," said the other, wriggling his way into theshelter. "This is pretty good in here. But you'd better come to mycave."
"Oh! do you live in a cave?" asked Sammy.
"Isn't it dark?" asked Tess.
"Are there fishes in it with blind eyes?" demanded Dot, who had heardsomething about the fish of the streams in the Mammoth Cave, andthought all caves were alike.
"Fish?" snorted the newcomer. "I guess not! Wish there were. We'd eatthem. And we need meat."
"Is--is your cave far?" asked Sammy, in some doubt.
"No. Just back of this tree. And we'd better get back there quick, orthe door will be all snowed under. This is a big, big storm."
"Who are you?" Tess asked. "If you don't mind telling us. This isSammy Pinkney; and I'm Tess Kenway; and this is my sister, Dot."
"Huh!" said the stranger. "I--I'm Rowdy."
"Rowdy?" repeated Tess, wonderingly.
"That's what they call me," said the other hastily. "Just Rowdy. Andwe'd better go to my cave."
"But you don't live out here in the woods all by yourself, do you?"asked Sammy, in much surprise.
"No. But--but my father's gone a long way off." The boy hesitated amoment, and then added: "Gone to Canada--trapping. Won't be back forever so long. So I live in the cave."
"Oh, my!" murmured Tess.
"Je-ru-sa-_lem_!" exclaimed Sammy. "Ain't you afraid to live herealone?"
"I'm not afraid," said their new friend. "And there's nobody to bossyou all the time here. Come on. You follow me. Drag along the sled. Wemight need that after the snow's stopped."
He started to crawl out through the hole into the storm again, and thetrio from Red Deer Lodge decided that there was nothing better to dothan to follow him.
The Corner House Girls Snowbound Page 21
