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 tonight, 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.
“Have you any games we could play?” asked Nan.
She and her brother were in the habit of playing simple games at home before going to bed, and it seemed natural to do it now. After the first shock of feeling that they were lost in the snow storm had passed, the Bobbsey twins were quite content. They felt that their father and mother must realize that they were safe.
“Games, dearie?” asked Mrs. Bimby. “Well, seems to me there’s some dominoes around somewhere, and I did see a checker board the other day. Jim used to play ’em when the loggers came in. I’ll see if I can dig ’em out.”
She rummaged through an old chest and brought to light a box of battered dominoes. But as several were missing it was hard to play a good game with them. As for the checkers, the board was there but the pieces, or men, were not to be found.
“But you can take kernels of corn,” said Mrs. Bimby. “I’ve often seen my Jim do that.”
“Checker men have to be of different color,” said Nan, “and corn is all one color, isn’t it?”
“There are red ears,” suggested Bert. “Don’t you remember we saw some when we were in the country?”
“Oh, yes!” exclaimed Nan.
“That’s what I was going to say,” remarked Mrs. Bimby. “I can give you some yellow kernels and some red ones, and you can play checkers if you like.”
This suited Nan and Bert, and though it was hard to make “kings” by placing one grain of corn on top of another, they managed to go on with the game, using pins to fasten two red or two yellow kernels one on top of the other when the king row was reached.
Grains of corn or some other cereal, or perhaps colored stones, were, very likely, the first sort of “men” used in the ancient game of checkers, and Bert and Nan got along very well in this way. Mrs. Bimby kept stoking the fire, putting on stick after stick of wood as it burned away, and the cabin was kept warm and cozy.
Outside the storm raged, the wind blew, and the snow came pelting down. But at times the older Bobbsey twins were so interested in their checker game that they hardly heard the sounds outside the log cabin.
At last Mrs. Bimby, with a look at the clock, said:
“It’s after nine, dearies; hadn’t you better go to bed? My Jim won’t come tonight, that’s sure, and I don’t believe any of your folks will come for you.”
“They don’t know where we are,” said Nan.
“No more they do, dearie. Well, I’ll show you where you’re to sleep. I’m glad I’ve got covers enough for two extra beds.”
There were three rooms in the second story of the log cabin. Two of the rooms were small, each one containing a little single cot. The other room was larger, and had a bed in it. Mrs. Bimby slept there, and she gave Bert and Nan each one of the smaller rooms. There was a window in each of the bedrooms, and being above the warm downstairs room, where a hot fire had been blazing all evening, the sleeping chambers were more comfortable than one would have supposed.
Bert and Nan were so sleepy that they did not lie awake long after getting to bed. As there were no pajamas for Bert and no night-gown for Nan, the children slept in their underclothes, taking off only their shoes and outer garments.
In spite of the fact that he fell asleep soon after going to bed, because he was tired from the day’s tramp after chestnuts, Bert was awakened in the middle of the night by hearing Nan call:
“Mother, please give me a drink!”
It was a request Bert had often heard his sister make before, and now he realized that she was either half awake, and did not remember where she was, or else she was talking in her sleep. He raised up on his elbow and listened. Again Nan said:
“I want a drink!”
Bert knew how hard it was to try to go to sleep when thirsty, so he got up and, having noticed on coming to bed the evening before a pail of water on a chair in the upper hall, he brought Nan a dipper full. Mrs. Bimby had left a lantern burning, so it was not dark in the cabin.
“Oh, Bert! I dreamed I was back home,” said Nan, as she took the drink her brother handed her. “Thank you!”
“Welcome,” he said, struggling to keep his sleepy eyes open.
“Is it still snowing?” asked Nan.
“Hard,” answered Bert, looking out of the window, though, truth to tell, he could see nothing, it was so pitch dark outside. But he could hear the rattle of snow against the glass.
“I hope it stops by morning,” sighed Nan.
“So do I—long enough for us to get back to camp, anyhow,” added Bert.
He got himself a drink and went back to bed, there to sleep soundly until morning, when Mrs. Bimby called him and Nan to get up.
“Come, dearies,” said the kind old woman. “We’ll have breakfast, such as it is.”
For a few moments after awakening Bert and Nan could not quite remember where they were. Bert afterward said that he hoped there would be hot buckwheat cakes for breakfast, with maple syrup, such as they had had in the cabin where Mrs. Baxter acted as cook. But there was no such appetizing smell as that of pancakes coming up from Mrs. Bimby’s kitchen.
“I’m sorry I haven’t any more to offer you,” she said to the children, as she set before them some more weak tea and a few pieces of bread and butter. “If my Jim had come back we’d have had enough to eat. But as it is, I’m afraid you’ll go hungry soon.”
“We’ll eat what’s left of our lunch,” said Bert.
“And cook some chestnuts,” added Nan. “We’ll pretend we’ve been shipwrecked. Were you ever shipwrecked, Mrs. Bim
by?” Nan asked, as cheerfully as she could.
“No, dearie, but I’ve had the rheumatiz, and I reckon that’s ’most as bad. But let’s eat what we’ve got and we’ll hope for more before the day is over.”
“It’s still snowing, isn’t it?” remarked Nan, as she hungrily ate some of the dry food and swallowed some of the weak, but warm, tea.
“Yes, and it’s likely to keep up all day,” said Mrs. Bimby. “It’ll be hip-deep by night, and we’ll be completely snowed in. I declare, I don’t know what we’ll do!”
“Maybe it’ll stop,” suggested Bert, trying to look on the bright side.
“Or maybe it won’t be so bad but what we can go out,” added Nan. “And if we get back to camp we can send you something to eat by one of the men in a sleigh, Mrs. Bimby.”
“I wouldn’t let you go out in this storm—not for anything!” declared the kind old woman. “The only safe place is this cabin when it snows this way. You can’t starve to death as quickly as you can freeze to death, that’s a comfort. And we’ve got enough for one more meal, anyhow.”
But when noon came, after a long morning, during which the Bobbsey twins played more checker games with grains of corn, and when almost all there was in the cupboard had been eaten, Mrs. Bimby opened the doors, looked at the bare shelves and said:
“I declare, I don’t know what we’re going to do! Almost everything is gone!”
The cupboard, indeed, was nearly bare.
For some reason or other, Bert’s eyes rested on the gun on the wall over the mantel.
“Is that gun loaded, Mrs. Bimby?” he asked.
“Yes, I reckon ’tis,” she answered. “Jim always keeps it loaded, for he goes hunting sometimes.”
“What after?” asked Bert.
“Oh, squirrels and rabbits.”
“That’s what I’m going to do, then!” cried Bert. “If I could shoot some squirrels or rabbits we’d have a potpie and we wouldn’t be hungry. Will you please get that gun down for me, Mrs. Bimby?”
She looked at Bert and smiled.
“You’re pretty small to handle a gun,” she said. “But maybe you could fire it if I showed you how. I’ve shot it more ’n once, and I brought down a cawing crow last winter. Sometimes the rabbits come close up to our cabin here. Wait till I take a look.”
She went to the window to peer out into the storm, and Nan did likewise, while Bert continued to gaze at the gun on the wall. It was a shotgun, not very heavy, and he felt certain he could aim it at a rabbit and pull the trigger.
Mrs. Bimby shook her head as she turned away from her window.
“There’s no game here,” she said. “Guess we’ll have to go without a potpie.”
But Nan suddenly uttered an exclamation.
“Oh, I see one!” she cried. “I see a big rabbit! Two of ’em! Oh, Bert, it’s a shame to shoot the bunnies, but we can’t starve! Get the gun!”
CHAPTER XVI
Bert Starts Out
Just about the time that Bert was getting ready to try for a rabbit potpie by firing the gun from the door of Mrs. Bimby’s cabin, in the other and larger cabin at Cedar Camp the smaller Bobbsey twins were having a good time. There was no danger there of starving, for the cupboard was far from being bare.
But of course Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey were worried because, after their long night of worry, neither Bert nor Nan had come back, and there was no news of them.
“But we’ll surely hear from them today,” said Tom Case, as he came over through the storm after breakfast to learn if Mr. Bobbsey had any special plans.
“How’s Old Jim?” asked Mr. Bobbsey, as the head of the sawmill workers came in out of the storm, for it was still snowing.
“Oh, Jim’s all right,” was the answer. “But he’s worrying about his wife not having any food. I came over to say that if the storm lets up a little maybe we’d better try to take something to eat to the old lady. She’s all alone in her cabin.”
Of course neither he nor Old Jim knew that the two older Bobbsey twins were at that very moment with Mrs. Bimby.
“All right, it would be a good idea,” said Mr. Bobbsey. “And we must make another search for Bert and Nan.”
“I have a sort of feeling that they’re safe,” said Mr. Case. “And, really, it wouldn’t be wise for you to start out in this storm to look for them. I think it may moderate a little by to-morrow.”
“Let us hope so!” sighed Mrs. Bobbsey.
“Can’t Old Jim come over and play with us?” asked Flossie.
“We want to have some fun,” added Freddie.
The two smaller twins had been as good as possible, but they were not used to being cooped up in the house, and there really was not much to do in the cabin. No toys had been brought along, for Mr. Bobbsey had not expected to stay very long in looking after his Christmas trees. And he certainly never counted on being snowed in.
“Yes, I’ll bring Old Jim over,” said Mr. Case. “He’s pretty good at making things with his pocket knife. Shouldn’t wonder but what he could cut you out a doll, Flossie.”
“Can he make boats?” asked Freddie.
“Sure he can!” said the sawmill foreman.
“Where you going to sail a boat in the snow, Freddie Bobbsey?” asked Flossie.
“I—I’ll have him make me a snow-boat!” the little fellow said.
“Pooh!” laughed Flossie. “There are ice-boats, ’cause we rode in one once, but there aren’t any snow-boats, are there, Daddy?”
“Well, perhaps Old Jim can make one,” her father said. “Bring him over, Tom. I want to talk to him and find out where would be the most likely place for Nan and Bert to have found shelter.”
The old logger, who seemed to have gotten over his exposure to the storm, came to the Bobbsey cabin, and he somewhat relieved the worries of Bert’s father and mother by saying there were a number of cabins of loggers and trappers scattered through the woods, and he had an idea that Bert and his sister might have reached one of these.
“Well, we’ll start out and look for them as soon as the storm lets up a little,” said Mr. Bobbsey.
Freddie and Flossie made great friends with Old Jim. They took to him at once, and when he cut out of a piece of wood an odd doll for Flossie, and made for Freddie a thin wooden wheel, which would turn around in the waves of heat arising from the hot stove, the children were delighted.
They climbed all over Old Jim, and laughed and shouted as though they had no cares in the world. And, as a matter of fact, they were not old enough to worry about Bert and Nan. They thought their older brother and sister would come along sooner or later.
Slowly the day of storm passed, but with no let-up in the falling snow. The wind, while it did not blow as violently as at first, was high and cold, so that the little Bobbsey twins could not go out.
And it was about the time that Flossie and Freddie were having such fun with Old Jim that, back in this same logger’s lonely cabin, Bert and Nan were wondering whether they would have anything to eat for supper.
As Nan had said, she did see two large rabbits when she looked from the window. And she called to her brother to get the gun from its place over the mantel.
“Land sakes!” exclaimed Mrs. Bimby, “there are two right in plain sight. Now Bert, if you’re any kind of a shot, maybe we’ll have rabbit stew for supper. Here, take the gun, but be careful!”
Bert knew a little about firearms, and he was not at all afraid as Mrs. Bimby put the shotgun into his hands. Then she opened the door for him, very carefully, so as not to frighten the rabbits.
“They’re still there, right on top of the snow!” called Nan, as she peered from the window on her side of the cabin. “I’m not going to watch you shoot them, Bert, though I am terribly hungry. And I’m going to hold my hands over my ears so I won’t hear the gun.”
Bert was quite excited, and did not pay much attention to what his sister was saying, but he was not so excited that he could not hold the gun fairly steady.
The rabbits were in plain sight now, two wild, gray bunnies, fat and plump. Bert took sight over the little point on the end of the gun. He held this sight as steadily as he could in line with one of the rabbits.
“Better shoot quick!” whispered Mrs. Bimby. “I think they see us and they’ll scoot away in a minute!”
Bert gave a steady pull on the trigger, not a sudden pull, which is not the right way to shoot. A sudden pull spoils your aim.
“Bang!” went the shotgun.
“Oh!” screamed Nan, who, in spite of having held her hands over her ears, heard the report.
“I got one! I got one!” excitedly cried Bert, as he saw one of the bunnies lying on the snow. The other had scampered off.
“Yes, you did get one, child!” said Mrs. Bimby, as she ran out into the storm and came back with the game. “Now we shan’t starve. I’ll make a potpie.”
This she did, stewing the rabbit with some dumplings she made from a little flour she had left in the bottom of the barrel. Bert and Nan thought nothing had ever tasted so good as that rabbit potpie.
“You’ll be quite a hunter when you grow up,” said Mrs. Bimby, when the meal was over. “You shot straight and true, Bert!”
“But you helped me,” said the Bobbsey boy. “I couldn’t have aimed the gun straight if you hadn’t helped me.”
“But I saw the rabbits, didn’t I?” asked Nan.
“Yes, dearie, you surely did,” said the kind old woman. “Now we shan’t starve for a couple of days, anyhow.”
“And then I can shoot more rabbits, or maybe some squirrels,” Bert declared.
“I hope by that time the storm’ll be over,” remarked Mrs. Bimby, “and that my Jim will come back.”
“Will he take us home, or bring our father here?” Nan questioned.
“I guess so,” Mrs. Bimby answered.
But as the snow kept up all the remainder of that day, and as it was still storming hard when night came, there did not seem much chance of the two older Bobbsey twins being rescued.
The Bobbsey Twins Megapack Page 167