The Corner House Girls Snowbound Part 41

"He had more food than we have," said Rowdy thoughtfully. "And you kids do eat a lot. If I'd known you were coming here to live I'd have brought more stuff to eat--I surely would!"

"Can't we catch any more rabbits?" suggested Sammy.

"How are you going to catch rabbits when we can't get outside this cave?" returned Rowdy. "I guess all boys are foolish. That sounds just like Rafe."

"Say! You're a boy yourself," said Sammy, in surprise. "You needn't talk."

"Oh!" rejoined Rowdy, and said nothing more for a time.

But they gave up digging through the s...o...b..nk. The snow seemed packed very hard, and it was difficult to dig with a slab of wood. If there had been an avalanche over the mouth of the cave their chances for digging out were small, indeed. Luckily none of the children realized just what that meant.

Living in the cave was some fun, as Sammy declared. At least, it had the virtue of novelty. The time did not drag. They played games, paid forfeits, and Tess told stories, and Rowdy sang songs. He had a very sweet voice, and Tess told him that he sang almost as well as Agnes did.

"And Agnes sings in the church chorus," explained Tess.

"And I think you cook 'most as good as a girl," said Dot. "I guess you cook 'most as good as our Linda, at home, in Milton."

If Rowdy considered these statements compliments he did not say so.

Indeed, he seemed to be very silent after they were made. He sat beside Rafe on the bed for some time, and they whispered together.

Rafe seemed to get no better, and he slept a good deal.

So did the other children sleep, after a while. Having no means of telling whether one day or two had pa.s.sed, after eating a second time they all curled down, covering themselves as best they could, and found in slumber a panacea for their anxiety.

It was not Sammy who awoke the next time, but Tess. She became wide awake in a moment, hearing a sound from somewhere outside of the cave.

She sat up to hear it repeated.

Something was scrambling and scratching in the snow. She even heard a "woof! woof!" just as though some animal tossed aside the snow and blew through it. Tess was badly frightened.

"Sammy! Rowdy! Oh, please!" she cried. "Is it a bear?"

"Is what a bear?" demanded Rowdy, waking up in some confusion. "I guess you've been dreaming, Tess."

"That isn't any dream!" cried the Corner House girl, and she sprang up, seizing Dot in her arms.

Rowdy screamed now; not at all like a boy would cry out. He leaped from the bed and ran to the other side of the room. There, hanging on two pegs, was a small rifle. Sammy had eyed it with longing. But Rafe, awakened as well, shouted:

"No good taking that, Rowdy! It isn't loaded. You know I shot away the last cartridge at that old fox."

"Oh, Rafe! I told you then you were foolish," said Rowdy. "What shall we do?"

"What is it?" yelled Sammy, tumbling out of bed.

"It's a wolf!" replied Rowdy. "I can hear it! Listen!"

Dot added her voice to the din. "Tell that wolf we haven't anything to throw to him, so he might's well go away," she declared.

Rowdy ran to the hole in the snow. It seemed to be suddenly lighter there. Was the beast that was scratching through letting daylight into the cave?

Rafe shrieked and leaped out from under his coverings.

"You'll be killed, Rowdy! Don't go there!" he cried.

Das.h.i.+ng across the floor of the cave, he seized Rowdy and pulled him out of the way.

"Give me the gun!" he ordered, wresting it from Rowdy's hands. He seized it by the barrel and poised it as a club.

"Get out, Rowdy!" he commanded. "This isn't any place for a girl!"

At that amazing statement the little girls from the old Corner House and Sammy Pinkney were so utterly surprised that they quite forgot the savage animal that seemed to be trying to dig into the cave to attack them.

CHAPTER XXV

HOLIDAYS--CONCLUSION

It was rather fortunate that Ralph Birdsall had shot way his last cartridge in killing the fox three nights before from the garret window of Red Deer Lodge. Otherwise he might have hurt Tom Jonah.

For the old dog scrambled through the drift ahead of the searching party that had started out as soon as the gale ceased. Tom Jonah was pretty near crazy--or he acted so.

Barking and leaping, the dog threw himself upon Ralph and tumbled him over. He was prodigal with his expressions of joy and affection, going from one to the other of the five children, and in his boisterousness tumbling them in heaps.

"I never did! Tom Jonah! why don't you behave?" demanded Tess. "And I have been telling Rowdy and Rafe, these nice boys, just how good and smart you are."

"Je-ru-sa-_lem_!" gasped Sammy, finally getting his breath. "They ain't boys!"

"Who aren't boys?" asked Tess, wonderingly.

"Well--well, _this_ one isn't," said Sammy, pointing at Rowdy. "He's a girl, that's what he is."

"Why, Rowdy! I _thought_ there was something funny about you," Tess Kenway said. "You--you were so much nicer than boys are. I declare!"

But this point was discussed no further at the time. For into the entrance to the cave came tumbling Neale O'Neil and Luke Shepard, covered with snow and shouting their joy, while behind them was Ike M'Graw.

"Ralph! Roweny!" shouted the old timber cruiser. "Jest what sort of doin's do you call this?"

Neale and Luke greeted the three lost Milton children with vehemence.

Afterward Sammy confessed that maybe it was a good thing to get lost, for then you found out how much folks thought of you.

These three, with Tom Jonah, made up the searching party this time.

They had come away from Red Deer Lodge without letting the others know where they were going.

It was really Agnes who started them off on the right trail. While the gale still rocked Red Deer Lodge in its arms and n.o.body could go out of doors, Agnes remembered about the fork in the road where she and her friends had coasted.

"If the little ones tried to slide, they might have taken that wrong road," she said. "They could have slid right into it without knowing.

Where does it go, Mr. M'Graw?"