Christmas Under The Snow
OLIVE THORNE MILLER
IT WAS just before Christmas, and Mr. Barnes was starting for the
nearest village. The family were out at the door to see him start, and
give him the last charges.
"Don't forget the Christmas dinner, papa," said Willie.
"'Specially the chickens for the pie!" put in Nora.
"An' the waisins," piped up little Tot, standing on tiptoe t
give papa
a good-bye kiss.
"I hate to have you go, George," said Mrs. Barnes anxiously. "It looks
to me like a storm."
"Oh, I guess it won't be much," said Mr. Barnes lightly; "and the
youngsters must have their Christmas dinner, you know."
"Well," said Mrs. Barnes, "remember this, George: if there is a bad
storm don't try to come back. Stay in the village till it is over. We
can get along alone for a few days, can't we, Willie?" turning to the
boy who was giving the last touches to the harness of old Tim, the
horse.
"Oh, yes! Papa, I can take care of mamma," said Willie earnestly.
"And get up the Christmas dinner out of nothing?" asked papa, smiling.
"I don't know," said Willie, hesitating, as he remembered the proposed
dinner, in which he felt a deep interest.
"What could you do for the chicken pie?" went on papa with a roguish
look in his eye, "or the plum-pudding?"
"Or the waisins?" broke in Tot anxiously.
"Tot has set her heart on the raisins," said papa, tossing the small
maiden up higher than his head, and dropping her all laughing on the
door-step, "and Tot shall have them sure, if papa can find them in
S----. Now good-bye, all! Willie, remember to take care of mamma, and I
depend on you to get up a Christmas dinner if I don't get back. Now,
wife, don't worry!" were his last words as the faithful old horse
started down the road.
Mrs. Barnes turned one more glance to the west, where a low, heavy bank
of clouds was slowly rising, and went into the little house to attend to
her morning duties.
"Willie," she said, when they were all in the snug little log-cabin in
which they lived, "I'm sure there's going to be a storm, and it may be
snow. You had better prepare enough wood for two or three days; Nora
will help bring it in."
"Me, too!" said grave little Tot.
"Yes, Tot may help too," said mamma.
This simple little home was a busy place, and soon every one was hard at
work. It was late in the afternoon before the pile of wood, which had
been steadily growing all day, was high enough to satisfy Willie, for
now there was no doubt about the coming storm, and it would probably
bring snow; no one could guess how much, in that country of heavy
storms.
"I wish the village was not so far off, so that papa could get back
to-night," said Willie, as he came in with his last load.
Mrs. Barnes glanced out of the window. Broad scattering snowflakes were
silently falling; the advance guard, she felt them to be, of a numerous
host.
"So do I," she replied anxiously, "or that he did not have to come over
that dreadful prairie, where it is so easy to get lost."
"But old Tim knows the way, even in the dark," said Willie proudly. "I
believe Tim knows more'n some folks."
"No doubt he does, about the way home," said mamma, "and we won't worry
about papa, but have our supper and go to bed. That'll make the time
seem short."
The meal was soon eaten and cleared away, the fire carefully covered up
on the hearth, and the whole little family quietly in bed. Then the
storm, which had been making ready all day, came down upon them in
earnest. The bleak wind howled around the corners, the white flakes by
millions and millions came with it, and hurled themselves upon that
house. In fact, that poor little cabin alone on the wide prairie seemed
to be the object of their sport. They sifted through the cracks in the
walls, around the windows, and under the door, and made pretty little
drifts on the floor. They piled up against it outside, covered the
steps, and then the door, and then the windows, and then the roof, and
at last buried it completely out of sight under the soft, white mass.
And all the time the mother and her three children lay snugly covered up
in their beds fast asleep, and knew nothing about it.
The night passed away and morning came, but no light broke through the
windows of the cabin. Mrs. Barnes woke at the usual time, but finding it
still dark and perfectly quiet outside, she concluded that the storm was
over, and with a sigh of relief turned over to sleep again. About eight
o'clock, however, she could sleep no more, and became wide awake enough
to think the darkness strange. At that moment the clock struck, and the
truth flashed over her.
Being buried under snow is no uncommon thing on the wide prairies, and
since they had wood and cornmeal in plenty, she would not have been much
alarmed if her husband had been home. But snow deep enough to bury them
must cover up all landmarks, and she knew her husband would not rest
till he had found them. To get lost on the trackless prairie was
fearfully easy, and to suffer and die almost in sight of home was no
unusual thing, and was her one dread in living there.
A few moments she lay quiet in bed, to calm herself and get control of
her own anxieties before she spoke to the children.
"Willie," she said at last, "are you awake?"
"Yes, mamma," said Willie; "I've been awake ever so long; isn't it most
morning?"
"Willie," said the mother quietly, "we mustn't be frightened, but I
think--I'm afraid--we are snowed in."
Willie bounded to his feet and ran to the door.
"Don't open it!" said mamma hastily; "the snow may fall in. Light a
candle and look out the window."
In a moment the flickering rays of the candle fell upon the window.
Willie drew back the curtain. Snow was tightly banked up against it to
the top.
"Why, mamma," he exclaimed, "so we are! and how can papa find us? and
what shall we do?"
"We must do the best we can," said mamma, in a voice which she tried to
make steady, "and trust that it isn't very deep, and that Tim and papa
will find us, and dig us out."
By this time the little girls were awake and inclined to be very much
frightened, but mamma was calm now, and Willie was brave and hopeful.
They all dressed, and Willie started the fire. The smoke refused to
rise, but puffed out into the room, and Mrs. Barnes knew that if the
chimney were closed they would probably suffocate, if they did not
starve or freeze.
The smoke in a few minutes choked them, and, seeing that something must
be done, she put the two girls, well wrapped in blankets, into the shed
outside the back door, closed the door to keep out the smoke, and then
went with Willie to the low attic, where a scuttle door opened onto the
roof.
"We must try," she said, "to get it open without letting in too much
snow, and see if we can manage to clear the chimney."
"I can reach the chimney from the scuttle with a shovel," said Willie.
"I often have with a stick."
After much labour, and several small avalanches of snow, the scuttle was
opened far enough for Willie to stand on the top round of the short
ladder, and beat a hole through to the light, which was only a foot
above. He then shovelled off the top of the chimney, which was
ornamented with a big round cushion of snow, and then by beating and
shovelling he was able to clear the door, which he opened wide, and Mrs.
Barnes came up on the ladder to look out. Dreary indeed was the scene!
Nothing but snow as far as the eye could reach, and flakes still
falling, though lightly. The storm was evidently almost over, but the
sky was gray and overcast.
They closed the door, went down, and soon had a fire, hoping that the
smoke would guide somebody to them.
Breakfast was taken by candle-light, dinner--in time--in the same way,
and supper passed with no sound from the outside world.
Many times Willie and mamma went to the scuttle door to see if any one
was in sight, but not a shadow broke the broad expanse of white over
which toward night the sun shone. Of course there were no signs of the
roads, for through so deep snow none could be broken, and until the sun
and frost should form a a crust on top there was little hope of their
being reached.
The second morning broke, and Willie hurried up to his post of lookout
the first thing. No person was in sight, but he found a light crust on
the snow, and the first thing he noticed was a few half-starved birds
trying in vain to pick up something to eat. They looked weak and almost
exhausted, and a thought struck Willie.
It was hard to keep up the courage of the little household. Nora had
openly lamented that to-night was Christmas Eve, and no Christmas dinner
to be had. Tot had grown very tearful about her "waisins," and Mrs.
Barnes, though she tried to keep up heart, had become very pale and
silent.
Willie, though he felt unbounded faith in papa, and especially in Tim,
found it hard to suppress his own complaints when he remembered that
Christmas would probably be passed in the same dismal way, with fears
for papa added to their own misery.
The wood, too, was getting low, and mamma dared not let the fire go out,
as that was the only sign of their existence to anybody; and though she
did not speak of it, Willie knew, too, that they had not many candles,
and in two days at farthest they would be left in the dark.
The thought that struck Willie pleased him greatly, and he was sure it
would cheer up the rest. He made his plans, and went to work to carry
them out without saying anything about it.
He brought out of a corner of the attic an old box-trap he had used in
the summer to catch birds and small animals, set it carefully on the
snow, and scattered crumbs of corn-bread to attract the birds.
In half an hour he went up again, and found to his delight he had caught
bigger game--a poor rabbit which had come from no one knows where over
the crust to find food.
This gave Willie a new idea; they could save their Christmas dinner
after all; rabbits made very nice pies. Poor Bunny was quietly laid to
rest, and the trap set again. This time another rabbit was caught,
perhaps the mate of the first. This was the last of the rabbits, but the
next catch was a couple of snowbirds. These Willie carefully placed in a
corner of the attic, using the trap for a cage, and giving them plenty
of food and water.
When the girls were fast asleep, with tears on their cheeks for the
dreadful Christmas they were going to have, Willie told mamma about his
plans. Mamma was pale and weak with anxiety, and his news first made her
laugh and then cry. But after a few moments given to her long pent-up
tears, she felt much better and entered into his plans heartily.
The two captives up in the attic were to be Christmas presents to the
girls, and the rabbits were to make the long anticipated pie. As for
plum-pudding, of course that couldn't be thought of.
"But don't you think, mamma," said Willie eagerly, "that you could make
some sort of a cake out of meal, and wouldn't hickory nuts be good in
it? You know I have some left up in the attic, and I might crack them
softly up there, and don't you think they would be good?" he concluded
anxiously.
"Well, perhaps so," said mamma, anxious to please him and help him in
his generous plans. "I can try. If I only had some eggs--but seems to me
I have heard that snow beaten into cake would make it light--and there's
snow enough, I'm sure," she added with a faint smile, the first Willie
had seen for three days.
The smile alone he felt to be a great achievement, and he crept
carefully up the ladder, cracked the nuts to the last one, brought them
down, and mamma picked the meats out, while he dressed the two rabbits
which had come so opportunely to be their Christmas dinner.
"Wish you Merry Christmas!" he called out to Nora and Tot when they
waked. "See what Santa Claus has brought you!"
Before they had time to remember what a sorry Christmas it was to be,
they received their presents, a live bird, for each, a bird that was
never to be kept in a cage, but fly about the house till summer came,
and then to go away if it wished.
Pets were scarce on the prairie, and the girls were delighted. Nothing
papa could have brought them would have given them so much happiness.
They thought no more of the dinner, but hurried to dress themselves and
feed the birds, which were quite tame from hunger and weariness. But
after a while they saw preparations for dinner, too. Mamma made a crust
and lined a deep dish--the chicken pie dish--and then she brought a
mysterious something out of the cupboard, all cut up so that it looked
as if it might be chicken, and put it in the dish with other things, and
then she tucked them all under a thick crust, and set it down in a tin
oven before the fire to bake. And that was not all. She got out some
more cornmeal, and made a batter, and put in some sugar and something
else which she slipped in from a bowl, and which looked in the batter
something like raisins; and at the last moment Willie brought her a cup
of snow and she hastily beat it into the cake, or pudding, whichever you
might call it, while the children laughed at the idea of making a cake
out of snow. This went into the same oven and pretty soon it rose up
light and showed a beautiful brown crust, while the pie was steaming
through little fork holes on top, and sending out most delicious odours.
At the last minute, when the table was set and everything ready to come
up, Willie ran up to look out of the scuttle, as he had every hour of
daylight since they were buried. In a moment came a wild shout down the
ladder.
"They're coming! Hurrah for old Tim!"
Mamma rushed up and looked out, and saw--to be sure--old Tim slowly
coming along over the crust, drawing after him a wood sled on which were
two men.
"It's papa!" shouted Willie, waving his arms to attract their attention.
"Willie!" came back over the snow in tones of agony. "Is that you? Are
all well?"
"All well!" shouted Willie, "and just going to have our Christmas
dinner."
"Dinner?" echoed papa, who was now nearer. "Where is the house, then?"
"Oh, down here!" said Willie, "under the snow; but we're all right, only
we mustn't let the plum-pudding spoil."
Looking into the attic, Willie found that mamma had fainted away, and
this news brought to her aid papa and the other man, who proved to be a
good friend who had come to help.
Tim was tied to the chimney, whose thread of smoke had guided them home,
and all went down into the dark room. Mrs. Barnes soon recovered, and
while Willie dished up the smoking dinner, stories were told on both
sides.
Mr. Barnes had been trying to get through the snow and to find them all
the time, but until the last night had made a stiff crust he had been
unable to do so.
Then Mrs. Barnes told her story, winding up with the account of Willie's
Christmas dinner. "And if it hadn't been for his keeping up our hearts I
don't know what would have become of us," she said at last.
"Well, my son," said papa, "you did take care of mamma, and get up a
dinner out of nothing, sure enough; and now we'll eat the dinner, which
I am sure is delicious."
So it proved to be; even the cake, or pudding, which Tot christened snow
pudding, was voted very nice, and the hickory nuts as good as raisins.
When they had finished, Mr. Barnes brought in his packages, gave Tot and
the rest some "sure-enough waisins," and added his Christmas presents to
Willie's; but though all were overjoyed, nothing was quite so nice in
their eyes as the two live birds.
After dinner the two men and Willie dug out passages from the doors,
through the snow, which had wasted a good deal, uncovered the windows,
and made a slanting way to his shed for old Tim. Then for two or three
days Willie made tunnels and little rooms under the snow, and for two
weeks, while the snow lasted, Nora and Tot had fine times in the little
snow playhouses.
FOOTNOTE:
[T] From "Kristy's Queer Christmas," Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1904.