The Bobbsey Twins at Cedar Camp Part 19

"Yes, I guess so," answered Mr. Bimby.

"But what has become of Bert and Nan?" asked Mr. Bobbsey.

"Now look here, Mr. Bobbsey," said Tom Case, "don't go to worrying about those children. They're all right. Bert and Nan are smart, and when they saw this storm coming on they went to some shelter, you can depend on that. They'd know better than to try to make their way back to camp."

"Well, perhaps they would," admitted the father of the missing twins.

"And perhaps, when we get back to camp, we'll find them there. Some logger or hunter may have found them and taken them to our cabin."

"Of course," agreed Mr. Peterson.

By this time "Old Jim," as he was called, to distinguish him from Jim Denton, the lumber foreman, was feeling much better. He was still weak, and he leaned on the arm of one of the lumbermen as they turned back.

The storm was still fierce, and it was now night, but lanterns gave light enough to see the way through the forest.

Had it not been that the lumber and Christmas tree men knew their way through the woods, the party might never have reached Cedar Camp. As it was they lost the trail once, and had hard work to find it again. But finally they plunged through several drifts of snow that had formed, and broke out into the clearing around the sawmill.

"Did you find them?" cried Mrs. Bobbsey, when her husband came to the cabin, knocking the snow off his feet.

"No," he answered, and he tried to make his voice as cheerful as possible. "We didn't find them, but they're all right. They were probably taken in by some hunter or logger."

Even as he said this Mr. Bobbsey was disappointed that Bert and Nan had not been brought back to camp during his absence, for he had half hoped that he would find them there on his own return.

"Oh, I do hope they're all right!" said Mrs. Bobbsey.

"Of course they are!" her husband told her. "They'll be here in the morning."

"With chestnuts?" asked Flossie, who, with Freddie, had been awakened from an early evening sleep by the return of their father.

"Yes, they'll bring chestnuts," replied Mr. Bobbsey, trying to smile, though it was hard work, for he was really very much worried, as was his wife.

However, they did not let Flossie and Freddie know this. And as Mr.

Bobbsey ate the warm supper which Mrs. Baxter set out for him, he told about the finding of Mr. Bimby, who had been taken to the cabin of Tom Case, there to spend the night.

"Can we see him?" cried Flossie, who did not seem any the worse for having fallen into the water.

"Maybe he can tell us a story about a real bear," added Freddie, for he had been rather disappointed, since coming to Cedar Camp, because no one could tell him where to find a bear.

"Maybe he can," said his father. "You shall see Old Jim, as the boys call him, in the morning."

Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey did not pa.s.s a very happy night. They were much worried about the missing Nan and Bert, and though he tried to sleep, after Flossie and Freddie had gone to Slumberland, Mr. Bobbsey found it hard work. So did his wife.

More than once during the night, as they awakened after fitful naps and heard the wind howling around the cabin and the snow rattling against the windows, one or the other would say:

"Oh, I hope Bert and Nan are all right!"

And the other would say:

"I hope so!"

Morning came at last, but it was not such a morning as all in Cedar Camp had hoped for. They had expected the storm to be over, so that a searching party could again set out to find Bert and Nan.

But instead of the storm being over, it was even worse than the night before. A regular blizzard had set in, the snow coming out of the north on the wings of a cold wind. Great drifts were piled high here and there through the camp clearing, and when Freddie and Flossie looked from the window they could hardly see the sawmill.

"Oh, oh!" squealed Freddie. "Look, Flossie! Just look!"

"We're snowed in!" cried Flossie. "Oh, what fun we'll have!"

"It's just like Snow Lodge!" added Freddie, remembering a time spent there, when several adventurous happenings had taken place.

"Yes, I'm afraid we are snowed in," said Mr. Bobbsey, with an anxious look out of the window. "But I hope it will not last long. Well, here come Tom Case and Old Jim. I must see what they want," and he went to the door to let them in.

Meanwhile the snow came down steadily, and as Flossie had said, that part of the Bobbsey family at Cedar Camp was fairly snowed in. As for the other members of the family, Bert and Nan, we must now try to find out what had happened to them.

CHAPTER XV--A BARE CUPBOARD

Having finished drinking the weak tea which Mrs. Bimby brewed for them, eating with it some of the lunch they had brought along, Bert and Nan sat in the lonely cabin in the woods wondering what would happen next.

There was no other cabin or house near them, and as they heard the wind howl down the chimney and moan around the corners, and heard the rattle of hard snow against the window, the older Bobbsey twins were glad they had found this shelter.

"Do you think we'll be able to start back soon, Mrs. Bimby?" asked Nan, as she helped the old woman clear the tea things off the table.

"Back where, dearie?"

"Back to our camp."

"Oh, not to-night, surely," said Mrs. Bimby. "You won't dare venture out in this storm. It's getting worse, and black night is coming on. You just stay here with me. I can make up beds for you, and I'll be glad to have you, since my Jim isn't coming back, I reckon."

"What do you think has become of him?" asked Bert, who was interested in looking at a gun that hung over the mantel.

"Well, I reckon he got to the village, but found the storm so bad he didn't dare to start back," answered Mrs. Bimby.

Of course she did not know what had happened to Old Jim any more than Jim knew that the older Bobbsey twins were in his own cabin.

"But Jim'll be here in the morning," said his wife. "And I do hope he'll bring in something to eat. If he doesn't----"

She did not finish what she started to say, and Nan asked:

"Will you starve, Mrs. Bimby?"

"Well, not exactly _starve_, for I s'pose a body could keep alive on tea and condensed milk for a while. But we'll be pretty hungry. There'll be three to feed instead of just one," the old woman went on.

"We've some food left," said Bert. "And we can cook our chestnuts. We got quite a few before the storm came."

"Bless your hearts, dearies!" exclaimed Mrs. Bimby. "You may be able to eat chestnuts, but _my_ old teeth are too poor for that. But I dare say we'll get along somehow, even if the cupboard is almost bare. Don't you want to go to bed?"

"Oh, it's too early," objected Bert.