CHAPTER XX
THE SNOW SHROUD
It was rather difficult to find trees with the new and fragrantleaves started, at this time of year; therefore Ruth and hercompanions went rather farther from Snow Camp than they had at firstintended. But the warning flakes of snow served in no manner tostartle them. The snow had been floating down, and whitening theirclothing and adorning the trees with a beautiful icing, for more thanhalf an hour, before anybody gave the coming storm a serious thought.
"Perhaps we'd better go back and not get any stuffing for thepillows to-day, Helen," said Ruth, doubtfully. "See yonder! isn'tthat 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 JennieStone. "All this walk on these clumsy old snowshoes for nothing?"
"Well, we'll just go as far as that grove of small trees that wefound 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 thegirls had no means of apprehending the approach of the shroud ofthick snow that was sweeping out of the northwest. They could not seefar about them through the aisles of the wood.
Laughing and joking, the jolly party reached the spot of which Helenhad spoken. They set to work there in good earnest to fill their bagswith the pungent new growth of the trees, whose bending branches wereeasily within their reach.
"How this soft snow does clog the snow-shoes," complained BelleTingley, removing the racquettes to knock them free.
"But the flakes are smaller now," said Ruth. "See, girls! it'scoming faster and finer. I believe we shall have to hurry back, Helen."
"Ruth is right," added Madge Steele, who, as the oldest of theparty, should have used her authority before this. "Why! it's comingin a perfect sheet."
"Sheet!" repeated Jennie Stone, with scorn. "Call it rather ablanket. 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 bebivouacked in. Why! we'll have Long Jerry Todd, and the boys, and thedogs, 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 andcarrying 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 faraway.
"We're not ahead, girls," said Ruth, quietly. "Only the snow isfalling so thickly that you can't see us. Wait! Let us all gettogether and make a fresh start. It wouldn't do to get separated insuch 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, brisklyrubbing her own, "or we'll break them off. Isn't it cold?"
"It's dreadful!" wailed Lluella. "The wind cuts right througheverything 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 thepoints 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 foranother. 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 insuch 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 waitfor 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 hereto help us home."
"Come, come!" said Ruth, cheerfully. "We ought to be able to helpourselves. Here is a big tree with drooping branches. Let's get underit 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'tget at us."
She led the way and the other girls crowded after her. The low-branchedtree broke the force of the gale. Ruth lifted the end of onesweeping branch and her friends all crawled beneath the shelter, andas 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'tbe foolish," snapped Madge.
They at once found the retreat a perfect windbreak, and becamecomfortable--all hugging together "like a nestful of owlets," Helensaid, and all declared themselves as "warm as toast."
But the wind howled mournfully through the wood, and the snow sifteddown with a strange, mysterious "hush--hush--hus-s-sh" that made themfeel creepy. Although it was not yet midday, the light was very dimunder the thick branches of the tree. The snow became banked highbehind them, and Ruth, who was in front, had to continually breakaway the drifting snow with her mittened hands so that they could seeout.
And they could see precious little outside of their den. Just thesnow drifting down, faster and faster, thicker and thicker, gatheringso rapidly that they all were secretly frightened, although at firsteach girl tried to speak cheerfully of it.
"If we'd only thought to get Janey to put us up a luncheon," sighedHeavy, "I wouldn't have minded staying here all day. It's warmenough, that's sure."
"My feet are cold," complained Lluella. "I don't believe it willremain warm forever."
"And we couldn't make a fire," said Helen.
"I've matches in my pocket," Ruth said quietly. "I've carried themin 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," criedHeavy. "Carrying matches!"
"Tom _did_ tell us to," admitted Helen, laughing. "But I didn'tpay much attention to what he said. I know he told us that we couldnever tell when matches would come in handy in the woods."
"But we'd set the forest afire--and then see what damage would bedone!" 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 drybranches off underneath this tree--and others like it--and get a firevery easily. Tom told us how to do it."
"So he did!" cried Helen. "I do believe Ruth never forgets anythingshe 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 Madgecheerfully. "But the boys, or the men, either, couldn't find us inthis 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 spiritsindefinitely.
"Oh, but we'll be all right, I am sure!" quoth Madge. "Don't getdown-hearted, girls."
Helen broke down next and declared that she could not remain idleany longer. "
We must move out of this," she said. "We must find ourway back. Why, they might come this way hunting for us and never findus--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 bereally serious if we move farther from the regular camp instead oftoward it."
"But we cannot hear any rescue party shouting for us, nor can theyhear us under this drift," insisted Helen.
"Then we'll go out, one at a time, and shout," declared Ruth. "Letme try."
She sprang up and pushed her way through the drift at the mouth oftheir burrow. Not until she was standing outside did she realize theextent of the storm. The snow was swept across the country in a thickand heavy curtain, with a wind driving it, against which she knew shecould not stand.
She could not shout into the teeth of the gale, and her cry wasdriven back into her own ears as weak as the mew of a kitten.
"Ho!" exclaimed Madge Steele. "They couldn't hear that if they werea stone's throw off. Let _me_ give a warwhoop."
"We're all coming out!" cried the dissatisfied Lluella. "Let's allshout. Oh, girls! we've _got_ to get back to the camp. We'll diehere."
They scrambled out of the burrow. The wind smote full against themwhen once they were in the open. When they raised their voices inchorus it seemed as though there was an answering shout from acertain direction.
"Here we are! here we are! Father! Tom!" shrieked Helen, at the topof her voice.
"Don't go!" begged Ruth. "Let us stick by the tree. It will shelterus. Shout again."
But the majority of the girls were for setting off at once towardthe sound they thought they had heard in the midst of the storm.Again and again they shouted. They clung to each other's hands asthey ploughed through the drifts (the snowshoes were of no use tothem now) but they did not hear the answering cry again.
At last they stopped, all sorely frightened, Lluella in tears. "Whatwill we do now?" gasped Belle.
"We'd better go back to that tree. We were safe there," mutteredHeavy, her teeth chattering.
But they had drifted with the storm, and when they turned to face itthey knew at once that never could they make way against the wind andsnow.
"Oh, oh, oh!" wailed Helen. "We're lost! we're lost!"
"Hold up! Be brave!" urged her chum. "We must not give up now. Someother tree will give us shelter. Cling together, girls. We _must_ getsomewhere."
But where? It was a question none of them could answer. Theyremained cowering in the driving snow, utterly confused as todirection, and fast becoming buried where they stood.