THE SNOW SHROUD
It was rather difficult to find trees with the new and fragrant
leaves started, at this time of year; therefore Ruth and her
companions went rather farther from Snow Camp than they had at first
intended. But the warning flakes of snow served in no manner to
startle them. The snow had been floating down, and whitening their
clothing and adorning the trees with a beautiful icing, for more than
half an hour, before anybody gave the coming storm a serious thought.
"Perhaps we'd better go back and not get any stuffing for the
pillows to-day, Helen," said Ruth, doubtfully. "See yonder! isn't
that more snow coming?"
"Bah!" exclaimed Lluella, interrupting, "What's a little snow?"
"Cautious Ruthie is usually right," said Madge Steele, frankly.
"Let's go back."
"But we've scarcely got anything in the bags yet!" wailed Jennie
Stone. "All this walk on these clumsy old snowshoes for nothing?"
"Well, we'll just go as far as that grove of small trees that we
found the other day, and no farther," said Helen, who naturally--
being hostess--had her "say" about it.
As yet there was no real sign of danger. At least, in the woods the
girls had no means of apprehending the approach of the shroud of
thick snow that was sweeping out of the northwest. They could not see
far about them through the aisles of the wood.
Laughing and joking, the jolly party reached the spot of which Helen
had spoken. They set to work there in good earnest to fill their bags
with the pungent new growth of the trees, whose bending branches were
easily within their reach.
"How this soft snow does clog the snow-shoes," complained Belle
Tingley, removing the racquettes to knock them free.
"But the flakes are smaller now," said Ruth. "See, girls! it's
coming faster and finer. I believe we shall have to hurry back, Helen."
"Ruth is right," added Madge Steele, who, as the oldest of the
party, should have used her authority before this. "Why! it's coming
in a perfect sheet."
"Sheet!" repeated Jennie Stone, with scorn. "Call it rather a
blanket. And a thick one."
"B-r-r-r! How cold it's grown!" cried Lluella.
"The wind is coming with the snow, girls," shouted Helen. "Come on!
let's bustle along home. This place was never meant for us to be
bivouacked in. Why! we'll have Long Jerry Todd, and the boys, and the
dogs, and all hands out hunting for us. Dear me! how the wind blows!"
"I can't see, girls!" wailed Belle. "Wait for me! Don't be mean!"
"And don't forget Little Eva!" begged Heavy, tramping on behind and
carrying one of the bags. "I declare! I can't see Ruth and Helen."
"Don't get so far ahead, girls!" sang out Madge Steele, warningly.
"We'll get separated from you."
To their surprise Ruth answered from their left hand--and not far
away.
"We're not ahead, girls," said Ruth, quietly. "Only the snow is
falling so thickly that you can't see us. Wait! Let us all get
together and make a fresh start. It wouldn't do to get separated in
such a storm."
"Oh, this won't last--it can't snow so hard for long!" cried Jennie.
"But we can go on, clinging to each other's jacket-tails."
The six had come together, and Helen laughingly "counted noses."
"Though we mustn't even count 'em _hard_," she said, briskly
rubbing her own, "or we'll break them off. Isn't it cold?"
"It's dreadful!" wailed Lluella. "The wind cuts right through
everything I've got on. I shall freeze if we stand here."
"We won't stand here. We'll hurry on to the camp."
"Which way, girls?" demanded Heavy. "I confess I have lost all the
points of the compass--and I never did know them too well."
"Oh, I know the way back," said Helen, stoutly. "Don't you, Ruth?"
"I believe so," replied the girl from the Red Mill.
But when they started, Ruth was for one direction and Helen for
another. The fact that they did not all think alike frightened them,
and Madge called another halt.
"This will never do," she said, earnestly. "Why, we might be lost in
such thick snow as this."
"I can't walk any farther with this bag and on these old snow-shoes!"
cried Heavy. "Say! let's get under shelter somewhere and wait
for it to hold up--or until they come and dig us out."
"We're a nice lot of 'babes in the woods'," sniffed Belle.
"I wish we'd let the boys come with us," said Helen.
"Won't they have the laugh on us?" observed Madge.
"I don't care if they do," mourned Lluella. "I wish they were here
to help us home."
"Come, come!" said Ruth, cheerfully. "We ought to be able to help
ourselves. Here is a big tree with drooping branches. Let's get under
it where the snow is not so deep. It may hold up in a little while,
and then we can start fresh. Come around here where the wind won't
get at us."
She led the way and the other girls crowded after her. The low-branched
tree broke the force of the gale. Ruth lifted the end of one
sweeping branch and her friends all crawled beneath the shelter, and
as she followed them Heavy squealed:
"Oh, oh, oh! suppose there should be a bear under here?"
"Nonsense! suppose there should be a griffin--or a unicorn. Don't
be foolish," snapped Madge.
They at once found the retreat a perfect windbreak, and became
comfortable--all hugging together "like a nestful of owlets," Helen
said, and all declared themselves as "warm as toast."
But the wind howled mournfully through the wood, and the snow sifted
down with a strange, mysterious "hush--hush--hus-s-sh" that made them
feel creepy. Although it was not yet midday, the light was very dim
under the thick branches of the tree. The snow became banked high
behind them, and Ruth, who was in front, had to continually break
away the drifting snow with her mittened hands so that they could see
out.
And they could see precious little outside of their den. Just the
snow drifting down, faster and faster, thicker and thicker, gathering
so rapidly that they all were secretly frightened, although at first
each girl tried to speak cheerfully of it.
"If we'd only thought to get Janey to put us up a luncheon," sighed
Heavy, "I wouldn't have minded staying here all day. It's warm
enough, that's sure."
"My feet are cold," complained Lluella. "I don't believe it will
remain warm forever."
"And we couldn't make a fire," said Helen.
"I've matches in my pocket," Ruth said quietly. "I've carried them
in a bottle ever since we've been in the woods."
"For pity's sake! what for?" demanded Belle.
"Well--Tom told me to. He does. Helen knows," said Ruth, hesitating.
"Goodness me! it's like being cast away on a desert island," cried
Heavy. "Carrying matches!"
"Tom _did_ tell us to," admitted Helen, laughing. "But I didn't
pay much attention to what he said. I know he told us that we could
never tell when matches would come in handy in the woods."
"But we'd set the forest afire--and then see what damage would be
done!" cried Belle.
"Not necessarily. Especially in this snow," returned Ruth, calmly.
"If we get very cold, and are delayed for long, we can break the dry
branches off underneath this tree--and others like it--and get a fire
very easily. Tom told us how to do it."
"So he did!" cried Helen. "I do believe Ruth never forgets anything
she is told. And we may be glad of those matches."
"Goodness me!" whined Lluella. "Don't talk so dreadfully."
"How do you mean?" queried Helen.
"As though we'd have to stay here under this old tree so long! It's
_got_ to stop snowing soon. Or else the men will come after us."
"Why, we all believe that we shall soon get home," said Madge
cheerfully. "But the boys, or the men, either, couldn't find us in
this storm. We will have to be patient."
Patience was hard indeed to cultivate in their present situation.
The minutes dragged by with funereal slowness. Lluella began to sob,
and the most cheerful of the party could not keep up her spirits
indefinitely.
"Oh, but we'll be all right, I am sure!" quoth Madge. "Don't get
down-hearted, girls."
Helen broke down next and declared that she could not remain idle
any longer. "We must move out of this," she said. "We must find our
way back. Why, they might come this way hunting for us and never find
us--go right by the tree. We ought to get outside and shout, at least."
"Don't let's leave this warm shelter," begged Ruth. "It will be
really serious if we move farther from the regular camp instead of
toward it."
"But we cannot hear any rescue party shouting for us, nor can they
hear us under this drift," insisted Helen.
"Then we'll go out, one at a time, and shout," declared Ruth. "Let
me try."
She sprang up and pushed her way through the drift at the mouth of
their burrow. Not until she was standing outside did she realize the
extent of the storm. The snow was swept across the country in a thick
and heavy curtain, with a wind driving it, against which she knew she
could not stand.
She could not shout into the teeth of the gale, and her cry was
driven back into her own ears as weak as the mew of a kitten.
"Ho!" exclaimed Madge Steele. "They couldn't hear that if they were
a stone's throw off. Let _me_ give a warwhoop."
"We're all coming out!" cried the dissatisfied Lluella. "Let's all
shout. Oh, girls! we've _got_ to get back to the camp. We'll die
here."
They scrambled out of the burrow. The wind smote full against them
when once they were in the open. When they raised their voices in
chorus it seemed as though there was an answering shout from a
certain direction.
"Here we are! here we are! Father! Tom!" shrieked Helen, at the top
of her voice.
"Don't go!" begged Ruth. "Let us stick by the tree. It will shelter
us. Shout again."
But the majority of the girls were for setting off at once toward
the sound they thought they had heard in the midst of the storm.
Again and again they shouted. They clung to each other's hands as
they ploughed through the drifts (the snowshoes were of no use to
them now) but they did not hear the answering cry again.
At last they stopped, all sorely frightened, Lluella in tears. "What
will we do now?" gasped Belle.
"We'd better go back to that tree. We were safe there," muttered
Heavy, her teeth chattering.
But they had drifted with the storm, and when they turned to face it
they knew at once that never could they make way against the wind and
snow.
"Oh, oh, oh!" wailed Helen. "We're lost! we're lost!"
"Hold up! Be brave!" urged her chum. "We must not give up now. Some
other tree will give us shelter. Cling together, girls. We _must_ get
somewhere."
But where? It was a question none of them could answer. They
remained cowering in the driving snow, utterly confused as to
direction, and fast becoming buried where they stood.