SNOWED UNDER.
There was a roguish twinkle in the Captain's eye, as though oil was
not so precious but that they might have burned a few more drops of
it; but an order was an order, and everybody was quite ready for
darkness when it came, except Tug.
Then, how pitchy it was, and how the wind sung and whizzed over their
rough-edged shield of ice, now and then catching the border of the
ill-stayed tent and giving it a furious flap, as though about to throw
it over! But weariness and warmth--for often snowy nights are not so
cold as clear ones--closed ears as well as eyes, and when they awoke
it was gray light in the tent, and half-past seven o'clock in the
morning.
Katy was the first one to peep over the gunwale of the boat, though
Aleck was already awake.
"Is the place full of snow?" he asked.
"No, but the canvas sags a good deal."
"Well, you keep under your blankets till Tug and I--get out of this,
mate!--have cleared up the floor a little, and built a fire. I'm
afraid we won't get away from here to-day."
After breakfast the two larger lads crawled over the wall, sinking up
to their waists in the snow as they stepped off. Struggling out, they
climbed up a little way upon the crest of the hummock, where it had
been swept clear of snow by the wind, which had now subsided; but
nothing could be seen through the veil of thick-flying flakes except
the dirty gray of their canvas roof and the thin wisps of smoke that
curled upward from beneath it. All else was pure white, sinking on
every side into a circle of foggy storm. Around the outer side of the
boat and the end of the house drifts had been heaped up even on to the
edge of the canvas, so that their house had become a cave between the
ice and the snow-bank.
"It's snug enough," said Tug.
"Yes, but I should hate to starve to death or freeze there, all the
same," Aleck replied.
"But it ain't very cold--and--and--say! we've lots of food, haven't
we?"
"Enough for about ten days, if we put ourselves on precious short
rations; but most of it--the flour and bacon and so on--must be
cooked, and this takes fire, and fire needs fuel, which is just what
we haven't got. If we should use every bit of wood there is except
the boat and sledge, there wouldn't be enough to cook our food for ten
days. Besides, though it isn't cold now, it's likely to turn mighty
cold after this snow-storm, and then we must have a fire, or freeze."
"But we could get ashore back at the Point in a day's travel. Or, for
that matter, the south shore can't be far off, though we can't see it
through this fearful storm."
"If we had clear ice it would be all right, but how can we travel in
this snow? It can't be less than two feet deep everywhere for miles
and miles. You and I might go a little way, but Katy and The Youngster
couldn't budge twenty steps. It's really a serious scrape we have
brought ourselves into; and we ought to have thought about this before
we started. Talk about Dr. Kane! He never was worse off in the arctic
regions than we're likely to be right here in a day or two, unless
something happens."
Aleck certainly was very down-hearted, and his companion did not seem
much disposed to "brace him up," as he would have expressed it. He
could only reply, in an equally discouraged voice,
"I don't see what _can_ happen out here--for good."
"Nor I. Let's go in; it's no use standing here in the storm. But,
mind you, no word of all this to the others yet."
All day long the snow sifted down in fine, dense flakes that piled up
higher and higher around their house, though there was enough wind to
keep it from collecting on the roof, which was very fortunate. They
sat in the boat, half nestling in the straw; told stories; made Tug
tell them everything he could think of about animals and shooting;
invented puzzles, Aleck setting some hard sums; mended clothes--this,
of course, was Katy's amusement; and guessed at conundrums. Here Jim
outshone all the rest. He was sharper with his answers than any of
them, and finally proposed the following:
"Ebenezer Mary Jane, spell it with two letters?"
They knit their brows over it, pronounced it impossible to solve, and
gave it up.
"I-t, _it_," says Jim, and carried off the honors.
Tired of this, they listened while Katy read from the precious book of
Norwegian stories, and then chapter after chapter out of the little
red Testament.
"'Twouldn't be a bad scheme for some raven to bring _us_ food," said
Tug, thoughtfully. "I reckon Elisha's wilderness wasn't a worse one
than this ice-plain."
"The Eskimos, Dr. Kane writes, eat the raven himself sometimes, in
their snow-deserts, which Elisha wouldn't have done on any account, I
suppose."
"No. That would have been like Aesop's fable of killing the goose that
laid the golden eggs."
"Yes, so it would," Katy responded; "but the Eskimos have lots of
other birds to eat--auks and guillemots, and eider-ducks, and
mollemokes."
"But they're on the sea, where those birds live in enormous flocks,
like our wild pigeons up in the pine woods--millions of 'em!" Tug
exclaimed, with outstretched arms. "No such a thing on our lake after
the blackbirds leave the marshes."
"Except owls," interposed Jim; "and we can't eat them."
"I feel as though even an owl-stew wouldn't be bad about now," Aleck
replied.
Nevertheless, when lunch-time came, both the big boys vowed they were
not a bit hungry, and refused to eat. Katy took only a cracker, but
Jim ate three crackers and the last bit of the cold ham, picking the
bone so clean that, big as it was, Rex, who was frightfully hungry,
could get little comfort out of it, though he gnawed at it nearly all
the afternoon. Then Tug smashed it for him, and gave him another try,
which he appreciated highly.
"Poor Rex!" said Katy, with a sigh. "Travellers get so badly off they
have to kill and eat their dogs sometimes"--Rex stopped crunching, and
looked up with a glance of alarm at this--"and if we should--"
"What a grand time Rex would have at his own bones!" interrupted
Tug--a joke the utter absurdity of which wrinkled the faces that had
become straight into hearty laughter. Towards evening a fire was
built, which used the last of the sticks and one of the box-covers
before the biscuits could be baked in the skillet, the ham fried, and
tea made.
"I'm 'fraid it won't be long before I shall have to try the little
stove," said Katy.
"I had no idea we were so near the end," Aleck muttered, under his
breath.
The meal that evening was a very dull one, and if they did not go to
sleep at once after they had gone to bed, certainly there was little
fun-making among the weather-bound prisoners. Aleck said afterwards he
thought he slept about an hour that night, and Katy was sure she
didn't really get soundly asleep at all; but it is difficult to lie
awake _all_ night, though your rest may be so broken that you think in
the morning you have never once lost your knowledge of what was going
on.