Snowbound Mystery

by Gertrude Warner

  Benny, Jessie, and Henry climbed up to look. They could see only the handle of the basket.

  “My radio!” shouted Benny. He almost fell off the window seat. “I’ll tune in Greenfield and get the news. Maybe they’re sending out special messages because of the storm.”

  Jessie began to get breakfast. Henry started to put on his warmest clothes, but he did not explain why.

  “Listen, here’s the news,” Benny said.

  The newsman on the radio said, “As a service to our listeners during the blizzard we are broadcasting special messages. Please listen carefully. Mr. Allan Moore is safe, but he wants his family to know that he can’t get home today. The Police Chief wants people to stay calm. The streets will be cleared as soon as possible. The Fire Department wants everyone to be careful about overheating stoves and causing fires. Mr. James Alden wants to notify his grandchildren that they should stay in the hunters’ cabin. He will get help to them as soon as he can.”

  Benny said, “Just like Grandfather!”

  “Isn’t it?” said Jessie. She was feeling better now, after hearing the news from her grandfather. “I think I shall make some more hot chocolate for breakfast. We all need something hot.”

  But when she turned the faucet, nothing happened.

  “No water, Henry!” she cried.

  “I bet the pipe is frozen,” said Henry.

  “Never mind, never mind!” said Jessie, smiling.

  “What’s the idea, Jessie?” asked Benny.

  “I’m going to make hot chocolate just the same. I’m going to melt some snow.”

  Henry opened the door wide enough to scoop up the snow with the big saucepan. “Heap it high, Henry,” Jessie said. “It will soon melt down.”

  She put the pan on the stove. The great pile of soft, white snow began to get smaller and smaller. In a little while the water boiled.

  “I’ll use the powdered milk in the chocolate,” said Jessie.

  The family enjoyed breakfast. The hot chocolate helped them all.

  Then they knew why Henry had put on heavy clothes. He said, “I’m going out, Ben, to see if I can shovel out this new snow around the house. And I want to get the snow cleared again from the bird feeder. Want to come?”

  “Of course,” said Benny. “Wait till I get dressed.”

  The snow was up to Benny’s waist. The boys dug out the narrow path around the house, throwing the snow off to one side. The wind blew and the snow got in their eyes.

  Inside the cabin the girls could hear the two shovels going. “Let’s get dressed,” said Violet.

  Then Jessie said, “Look at that window!”

  The snow was disappearing! The girls could see a shovel come in and go out, taking a pile of snow with it.

  “Good. We can begin to see out,” nodded Jessie. “Those boys are strong.”

  Soon the Aldens could see each other through the window, two girls on one side and two boys on the other. They waved and laughed.

  The boys were tired when they came in to lunch. But Henry said, “After lunch I must go and get more wood. Want to come, Ben?”

  “You bet I want to come,” answered Benny. “But this time I’m going to wear snowshoes. I don’t like to sink down into the snow. It’s too deep.”

  “What are you going to use for snowshoes?” asked Jessie.

  “Those two big kettle covers on the shelf. They don’t go with any kettles we have here.”

  “I suppose a long time ago the hunters had two big kettles up here,” said Jessie. “I don’t know why, though.”

  “Probably for deer meat stew,” said Benny. “I’m glad we don’t have to eat that.” He could hardly wait to make his snowshoes.

  “How are you going to make those covers stay on your feet, Ben?” asked Violet.

  “Well, I’m going to use two belts,” said Benny. “And I’m going to make two holes in each cover.”

  Even Henry watched Benny as he punched two long slits in each cover with his biggest knife blade. He used Tom Nelson’s hammer to pound with. He slipped a leather belt through the slits in each cover. Putting a boot on each cover, he buckled the straps, using new holes in the belts. He pulled the belts tight and pushed the ends under his boot lacings.

  “Good for you, Ben!” said Henry. “Let’s see you walk.”

  What a noise Benny made! Clank, clank!

  He said, “This is worse than the noise the squirrels make. But these snowshoes will be fine on the deep snow. No noise at all.”

  Jessie helped Benny into his sweater and jacket and heavy gloves. He took one shovel to use as a ski pole, and Henry took the ax. Before they went, they shoveled the steps again. Snowflakes were still falling fast. They were whirling around in the wind.

  “Those snowshoes really work, Violet,” said Jessie, as they watched the boys. Benny was walking on top of the snow, and Henry was wading in up to his waist. “I hope they won’t get lost.”

  “They won’t,” said Violet. “They’ll stay together.”

  “Now, how can we surprise the boys?” Jessie began to think. She said, “I wonder what Grandfather meant when he said he would send help? Today? Tomorrow?”

  Violet said, “I think he meant to go ahead and eat what we have. I hope so.”

  “That’s what I thought he meant,” said Jessie. “Let’s have sandwiches for lunch. And why don’t we surprise the boys with a big chicken stew for tonight? We have a whole chicken in a can, and we can put in a can of spaghetti. We know how to get hot water when we haven’t any water.”

  The girls started to take the chicken meat off the bones. Then they put the chicken and spaghetti with some hot water in the saucepan. Violet said in great excitement, “I’ve thought of a second surprise for the boys! Snow ice cream!”

  “Wonderful!” said Jessie. “We’ve got plenty of snow for everything. But I’ve forgotten how to make it. I think we take a little milk and put in sugar and melt it, and then vanilla—oh, but we haven’t any vanilla.”

  The two girls began to think. Then Jessie said, “We could melt the currant jelly and that would make it taste like currant. Just as good as vanilla.”

  “It would make it pink ice cream!” said Violet.

  No sooner said than done. Jessie began to mix the powdered milk and jelly and sugar. “We won’t put in the snow until it is time for dessert. Look, here come the boys now.”

  Benny and Henry had armfuls of wood. “That wood looks like Henry’s work,” said Violet, laughing. “All the sticks are the same length.”

  Benny came first on his snowshoes. He could walk faster. Henry had to lift his feet high over the snow at every step.

  Benny called, “We’re going right back. We had to leave a few sticks. But wait till I put my muffler on for a belt!”

  “I should think so,” said Jessie, trying not to laugh. “Want any help?”

  “Yes, I do. Maybe one muffler won’t go around me.”

  “One is enough,” said Jessie, “unless it is pinching you.”

  “No, it doesn’t pinch me. And isn’t this good wood? It’s all old and dry. Henry picked it out.”

  “Wonderful!” agreed the girls.

  The boys started back for the rest of the wood. Watch began to bark.

  “No, you can’t come, Watch,” Benny called. “You’d drown.”

  But Watch went on barking louder and harder.

  “He’s barking at squirrels, I guess,” said Jessie.

  “No, he isn’t, Jessie,” said Violet. “Listen!”

  There was a strange low cry outside. The girls opened the door and looked at the snowy path. The boys were just starting out again.

  “Oh!” said Jessie. “It’s the two deer we saw in the woods!”

  The boys had stopped and were looking at the two animals, half buried in the snow. The deer were trying to get on their feet. They fell and got up again.

  The boys turned around and came quietly back to the cabin.

  Henry said in a low voice, “We don’t
want to scare them. They think if they find people, they will find something to eat, too.”

  CHAPTER 8

  To the Rescue

  The four Aldens left the door open a crack. The deer were half buried in the snow, and they struggled to stand up.

  “They don’t want any help,” said Benny.

  “They don’t need any,” said Henry. “They are up now.”

  The two deer shook themselves to get the snow off. Still more snow came down on them. But slowly the two animals came toward the cabin. They sniffed. Their soft brown eyes looked at the door.

  The deer went down the path that the boys had dug and found the open space. The Aldens went quietly over to the window and looked out. The gentle animals were tired out. They lay down and licked each other.

  Benny said, “Listen, I’m hearing things! I think I’m dreaming! Is someone calling?”

  But Benny did hear real voices. He opened the door and took one look. Then he shouted, “Henry, put on your jacket and bring me mine!” Then he jumped down the steps to the path.

  Henry took both jackets from the hook and struggled through the snow. The girls looked down the path. Something—or someone—was lying in the snow. A man with a little boy on his shoulder was leaning against a tree.

  The Aldens forgot all about the deer.

  “It’s the Nelsons!” said Jessie. “Oh, dear! I’m afraid Barbara has fallen in the snow. We’ll just have to wait. We can’t go out!”

  “The Nelsons have come to help us,” said Violet. “I’m sure of that.”

  “So am I,” said Jessie. “Look! Henry’s carrying Barbara. I’ll get a sleeping bag and put it in front of the fireplace.”

  “I’ll get it,” said Violet. She disappeared. Jessie held the door wide open.

  Barbara was talking in a weak voice to Henry. “Oh, I’m so ashamed to give out, Henry! I thought I could make it. But I didn’t know how bad it was.”

  Henry said, “Don’t say such things about yourself! I wonder you got here at all. You were kind and brave.” He put Mrs. Nelson down on the sleeping bag. Jessie put another bag under her head.

  “Oh, I can sit up! I’m sure I can,” said Barbara.

  “You stay right there, Barbara,” advised Jessie, kneeling down beside her. “Later you can sit on the couch.”

  Watch came over and sat down and never moved.

  Benny said, “Mr. Nelson is the one who should sit down. He carried Puggsy most of the way.” Benny pushed a chair under Mr. Nelson, who dropped into it and leaned back and shut his eyes.

  Puggsy was feeling the best of anyone, but even he was pretty tired. Benny put him into his own sleeping bag and propped him up against a chair.

  “Well, well,” said Benny. “You came to help us!”

  Mr. Nelson nodded. “We tried to, anyway. We were worried about you when it kept on snowing. We didn’t know whether you ever got home or not.”

  Henry nodded, “We might not have.”

  “I said I was coming to look for you early this morning, but Barbara said she’d come, too. She would be worrying that I was lost. Of course we had to bring Puggsy.”

  “I’m so thankful you got here!” Jessie shivered. “You might have been lost in the snow.”

  “We did fall twice, but we got up,” said Tom Nelson.

  Jessie had a sudden thought. “Are you hungry?” she asked.

  “Am I hungry!” shouted Puggsy. “I haven’t had anything to eat for a million years.”

  Henry laughed. “That sounds like you, Ben,” he said.

  “Well,” said Tom Nelson, “it has been a long time. We started out with a big sack of food for you, but we had to leave it in the snow.”

  Jessie said, “Violet, I’m sure we can eat that stew now. It’s all cooked anyway, and it is nice and hot. Now, take seats at the table. I’ve found three more dishes for chicken stew.”

  “Chicken stew?” said Puggsy. “I’ve never heard of that.”

  “It’s delicious,” said Benny.

  “Well, if you say so,” said Puggsy, looking at him.

  They all began to eat the chicken stew. Mr. Nelson said, “How thankful we are to be here!” He drew a long breath.

  While the others were eating more stew, Violet and Jessie made the snow ice cream. They mixed the soft, white snow with the milk and sugar and currant jelly. It was a lovely pink color.

  “Wouldn’t Grandfather laugh at this ice cream!” said Benny. Then he told the Nelsons about the message from Mr. Alden that had come over the Greenfield radio station.

  “But Grandfather didn’t know that you were coming,” he added.

  Just then everyone heard a strange humming sound outdoors.

  “What’s that?” asked Jessie. She stopped to listen.

  “A helicopter!” shouted Benny. “I know that sound! Where’s my jacket?” He was out of the door in a second, putting on his jacket as he ran. Henry was right behind him.

  The sound grew louder. The helicopter seemed to be standing still in the air right above the hunters’ cabin.

  “The pilot can’t land here,” Benny said. “What’s he going to do?”

  “Get back, Benny!” shouted Henry. “The pilot is throwing something out.”

  Bump! Something hit the cleared spot where the boys had shoveled.

  “Hay!” Benny exclaimed. “Just the way they throw hay out to cattle lost in the snow. But how did Grandfather know about the deer? We can’t eat hay.”

  But now Tom Nelson was outside, too. He said, “Benny, it’s a haylift. There’s something inside the hay. They put the hay around it for a soft landing. It’s a good thing you shoveled out this place! That showed the pilot that you can pick up anything he drops.”

  The helicopter flew low and the pilot waved both arms. The helicopter made such a noise the boys couldn’t hear a word. The pilot hovered over the cabin. Suddenly he held a blackboard out of the door.

  CAN’T LAND.

  MESSAGE IN HAY.

  BACK IN 2 HOURS.

  The boys nodded their heads back and forth, and waved their arms again.

  Off flew the helicopter.

  The boys dragged the bale of hay into the narrow path. The others were watching from the window. Then the boys dragged the bale into the house and everyone began to pull off the hay.

  “Don’t go too near the fire with that hay!” said Jessie. “We don’t want a fire as well as a blizzard.”

  Then they found the packages.

  “Canned milk,” said Henry. “And canned peaches.”

  “Loaves of bread,” said Jessie.

  “And a bag of sugar and lots of hamburger meat,” said Benny. “And that’s all. It’s lucky that the sugar was wrapped in the hay. We would have sugar all over everything if the bag had broken.”

  “And now where’s the message?” asked Henry. “That’s most important of all.”

  “Here it is,” said Benny. “A card all done up in plastic.”

  Henry read it aloud:

  From Your Grandfather: The State Police and the Highway Department will get you home as planned. Find something big for a message. Print what you need in large letters. Lay the sign on the snow. The pilot will come again and drop whatever you need. Tell me how you are.

  “What can we write our message on?” asked Jessie.

  “Oh, dear,” said Violet. “We haven’t anything big enough! And no paint or ink.”

  “Let’s look around,” said Benny. He sat down and began to look at everything in the room. Jessie went into the bedrooms to look. Nothing was big enough. There was not even a big calendar on the wall.

  The Nelsons tried to think, too.

  “It can be either light or dark,” said Violet, “if it is big enough.”

  “What will you print with?” asked Puggsy.

  “Wait until we settle our first problem, Puggsy,” said Henry. “We must find a big card or something.”

  Benny had looked all around the living room and at last his eyes came back
to the window.

  “Look!” he said. He pointed to the dark green window shade.

  “Oh, Benny,” cried Violet. “The very thing! It’s the only thing in this whole cabin that’s big enough.”

  Henry stood on the window seat and took down the shade. He unrolled it on the floor.

  “You stand on this end, Puggsy,” he said. Benny was already standing on the other end. It was perfect for a big sign!

  “Now Problem Number Two,” said Henry. “We will have to print with something white. And we haven’t any chalk. A prize to the one who thinks of something that will work.”

  “I’d like to get that prize,” said Puggsy.

  His mother said, “Well, then start thinking, Puggsy.”

  It was Violet who came up with an idea at last. She said, “I’m not sure it will work. But we can try one letter and see.”

  “What are you going to print?” asked Barbara Nelson. “What do you need?”

  “We need three sleeping bags for you,” Jessie said. “You will freeze if we don’t get something before night. Now, what’s your idea, Violet?”

  “I’ve done this before,” said Violet, “but never so big. Print the letters with water first. Then shake on the salt thickly, and when it dries shake off the loose salt.”

  “I bet it will work,” said Benny. “Let’s try. Violet, you’re the best printer and painter. Start with an S as big as this.”

  He traced a letter about four inches tall for Violet.

  “We’re lucky to have water,” said Benny. He brought a cupful of water. Jessie set down the box of salt.

  Violet went down on her hands and knees. She dipped her finger many times in the water and made a big, wet figure 3. Then she shook on plenty of salt. “Let it dry a minute,” she said. “I’ll go on with the S for sleeping bags.” Everyone watched her.

  After the letter S was made, Violet said, “Now let’s shake the salt off the 3.”

  Henry lifted the corner and shook the salt into the fireplace. A beautiful white figure 3 stayed on the shade!

  “Good, good!” shouted Benny. “It works! I knew it would!”

  When “3 SLEEPING BAGS” had been written, Jessie said, “We ought to tell Grandfather why we want them. I think just the word Nelsons would be enough. He’ll know they came to help us.”