IN A BIG DRIFT
"What are you men going to do now?" asked Mrs. Martin, as her husband
and Uncle Frank sat near the stove in the kitchen warming their feet,
for they were very cold, having come in after a second attempt to make a
path to the barn.
"We're going to try a tunnel," said Mr. Martin. "The snow is too deep
between the back door and the barn to try to shovel a path through it.
As fast as we toss the snow away it blows in again and fills up the path
so we can hardly get back to the starting place. Now if we begin in
front of the house, where there is a big drift, we can tunnel out to the
side of the barn."
"What good will that do?" asked Aunt Jo.
"When we make a tunnel it will have a top on it, like a roof over a
house. It will be a long snow house, the tunnel will, and the snow
can't blow in and fill it up."
"But what will you do with the snow you dig out of the tunnel?" Mrs.
Martin enquired. "You'll have to dig ahead and pile the snow back of you
and you'll be just as badly off."
"No," said her husband. "In front of the house is a big drift that goes
all the way to the barn. But one side of the drift, near the house, is
low and we can make a hole there to start. Then as we dig away the snow
we can bring it back to this hole and dump it outside. If we work long
enough we'll have a tunnel right through to the barn."
"In what will you carry the snow out of the tunnel?" asked Aunt Jo.
"In the big clothes baskets," answered Daddy Martin. "A tunnel is the
only way I can see by which we can get out to the barn. Come on, Uncle
Frank! If your feet are warm enough we'll begin. The horse and cow will
be glad to see us."
"Can't you make a place so the children can watch you?" asked Mother
Martin. "I can't have them in the playroom now as the window is broken.
Scrape off some snow around the front windows so they can see what
you're doing."
"We will," promised Uncle Frank.
So before he and Daddy Martin began to dig the tunnel they made a
cleared place in front of one of the parlor windows so a view could be
had of the big drift where the tunnel was to be started.
"Oh, I wish I could dig!" cried Ted.
"So do I!" echoed Janet.
"Don't you Curlytops open any more windows, or try to get out where your
father and Uncle Frank are making the tunnel," warned Mrs. Martin. "This
storm is getting worse instead of stopping."
So the children stayed by the window and watched.
With their big, wooden shovels and the big clothes baskets in which to
pile the snow they dug from the tunnel, Daddy Martin and Uncle Frank
started off to their work.
As the children's father had said, there was a large drift near the
front of the house. On one side it sloped sharply to the ground, making
a sort of snow wall, almost straight up and down. It was in the middle
of this snow wall that the tunnel hole was to be started.
"Well, here we go!" cried Uncle Frank, as he waved his shovel at the
watching children in the window.
He made a jab into the snow wall, and cut out a big square chunk of
whiteness. This he tossed back of him out of the way. For a time this
could be done, and there was no need to use the baskets. But as the
tunnel was dug farther in, the pile of white flakes would have to be
carried out. As the tunnel was only going to be big enough for one
person to walk in at a time, and not wide enough for two to go side by
side, the two men were to take turns digging, one using the shovel and
the other bringing out the clothes basket filled with snow which would
be emptied outside.
"Oh, I can't see Uncle Frank any more!" cried Ted, who was eagerly
watching with his sister and Trouble.
"Where's he gone?" asked Janet.
"He's dug a hole for himself inside the snow bank--in the tunnel--and I
can't see him now. He's away inside! Oh, what fun! I wish we could be in
there," he added.
"So do I," echoed Janet. "Maybe we can when it gets warmer and the snow
stops coming down."
"We'll ask mother," decided Teddy.
"I see my papa!" suddenly called Trouble. "He's bringin' out de
clothes!"
"No, that's a basket of snow he has," said Janet with a laugh, for her
father had just then come out of the tunnel with the first load of snow
that had been dug loose by Uncle Frank.
From then on, for some time, the children had a sight of their father or
their Uncle Frank only once in a while, as either one or the other came
to the mouth of the tunnel to empty the basket filled with snow.
Sometimes it would be Daddy Martin and again Uncle Frank, as they were
taking turns.
"I guess the tunnel must be most finished," said Janet, when they had
been watching for some time.
"Anyhow here they come in," added Teddy, as he heard a noise at the back
of the house.
"Did you tunnel your way to the barn?" asked Mrs. Martin, as her husband
and Uncle Frank came into the kitchen.
"Not yet. It's farther than we thought, and hard work," answered Mr.
Martin. "We came in to get some dinner and then we're going at it
again."
"And will you see if Nicknack is all right when you get out to the
barn?" asked Teddy.
"I surely will," promised his father. "I thought I heard him bleating
when I first went out, so I guess he's all right."
"Couldn't you bring him into the house?" asked Janet.
"He's lonesome out there," added Ted.
"Bring your goat into the house?" cried Mother Martin. "Oh, my goodness,
no!"
"Then we'd like to go out and see him," went on Teddy.
"Well, maybe, when we get the tunnel finished, and if it isn't too cold,
I'll take you out," promised their father.
After dinner he and Uncle Frank began work on the tunnel again. The
storm seemed to be stopping a little and the wind did not blow so hard.
"Please, Mother, couldn't Jan and I go out, just for a little while?"
begged Teddy toward evening, when it was getting almost too dark for Mr.
Martin and Uncle Frank to see to dig in the tunnel.
"What do you think, Aunt Jo?" asked Mrs. Martin.
"Oh, I should think it wouldn't hurt them to go out for a few minutes.
Wrap them up well, and I'll go with them, on the side of the house where
there isn't so much snow. But I wouldn't let Baby William go."
"No, I'll not."
So Ted and Jan and Aunt Jo got on their warm wraps and stepped out of
the front door, where Daddy Martin and Uncle Frank had cleared a place
on the veranda. Trouble cried to go, but, though the storm was not as
bad as it had been at the start, it was too cold for him.
Ted and Janet did not mind it at first. They ran around, laughed,
shouted and threw the snow. Then they began to feel the cold, which was
more severe than they had thought.
"Oh, what big drifts!" cried Teddy, as he saw some out in the road.
"Awful big!" agreed Janet. "Let's go and look in the tunnel."
There was little to see, however, except a big white hole in the great
drift, for Daddy Martin and Uncle Frank were at the far end, digging
their way to the barn and Nicknack.
"Come now, it's time to go in," said Aunt Jo. "I promised your mother
I'd keep you out only a little while. I think it's going to storm worse
than ever. Come on in!"
"Please wait until I take one jump!" begged Teddy.
He gave a run and a jump, down a little side hill in the yard near the
house. Into a pile of snow he leaped, and the next instant he had
disappeared from sight! The snow had closed over his head!
"Oh, where is he? Where's Teddy?" cried Janet, very much frightened.
"I guess he's in the big drift!" answered Aunt Jo.
"Oh, Daddy! Uncle Frank!" cried Janet. "Come quick! Teddy's in a big
drift!"