"Well, we"ll let them go," said the farmer. "I"m very glad you"ve got one load down."
"I think, sir," said Jonas, "if you have no objection, I"d better go and get the rest. I know just where they are, and I can get them all down here before night."
"You won"t have time to get down before it will be dark," said the farmer.
"Just as you think best, sir," said Jonas, "but I think I can get out of the woods before dark; and it is of no consequence about the rest of the way."
"Very well," said the farmer, "you may go. Don"t you want Amos to go with you?"
"No, sir, it isn"t necessary."
"No, sir," said Josey, "I can go with him."
So Jonas threw off his load, and then turned his team about, and once more set out for the woods. He and Josey sat upon the sled, talking by the way,--the storm continuing without much change. The snow gradually increased in depth, but the oxen walked along without difficulty through it. Sometimes they came to a drift where the snow was so deep as to come in a little upon the bars, where the boys were sitting; but in general the sled runners glided along through it very smoothly.
The woods appeared still more somber and solitary than they had done before. The new snow was deeper, and it was falling faster; and, besides, as it was now nearly sundown, there was only a gloomy sort of twilight, under the trees. Jonas and Josey loaded the sled as fast as they could. They put on the last of the rafters, which Jonas had collected, with great satisfaction. Josey, especially, began to be in haste to set out on his return.
"Now," said Jonas, "I"ll look around a little, just to see that there are none left behind."
"O, no, I wouldn"t," said Josey; "let us go. We"ve got them all, I know."
"I want to be sure," said Jonas, "and make thorough work of it."
So saying, he began wading about in the snow, to see if he could find any more rafters. He, however, soon satisfied himself that they were all upon the sled. He then secured his load carefully, with the chains, and they set out upon their return, as before.
It grew dark rapidly, and the wind and storm increased. When they came out of the woods, they found that the air was very thick with the falling flakes, and the drifts had begun to be quite large, so that sometimes, in plunging through them, the snow would bank up quite high, before the sled, against the ends of the rafters. Jonas said that, if they had been two hours later, they could not have got along.
"You said that the snow wouldn"t be a foot deep by midnight," said Josey.
"It is coming faster than I thought it would," said Jonas. "It is almost a foot deep now."
The road by which the boys were advancing, led along the bank of the brook, until it reached nearly to the sh.o.r.e of the pond, and then it turned off, and went towards the house, at a little distance from the sh.o.r.e. When they reached this part of the road, the storm, which here swept down across the pond, beat upon them with unusual fury. The wind howled; the snow was driven through the air, and seemed to scud along the ground with great violence; and the drifts, running diagonally across the road, were once or twice so deep, that the oxen could hardly get the load through. It was now almost dark, too, and all the traces of the road were obliterated,--though Jonas knew, by the land and fences, how to go.
Just at this time, when the wind seemed to lull for an instant, Jonas thought he heard a cry. He stopped his oxen to listen.
"No," said Josey, "I don"t believe it is any thing; let us go on."
In fact, Josey was afraid, and wanted to get home as soon as he could.
"Wait a minute," said Jonas. He listened again, and in a moment he heard the cry again. It seemed to be a cry of distress, but he could not distinguish any words.
"It is somebody off upon the pond," said Jonas.
"Is the pond out that way?" asked Josey.
"Yes," said Jonas, "and I verily believe somebody is out on it, and has lost his way."
"Well," said Josey, "let us go home as fast as we can, and tell uncle."
"No," said Jonas, "that won"t do."
Jonas turned in the direction from which the sound appeared to come, and, putting his hands up to his mouth in the shape of a speaking-trumpet, he called out, as loud as he could call,--
"Hal--loo!"
He listened after he had thus called, but there was no answer. In a few minutes, the cry which he had heard first was repeated, in the same tone as before.
"They don"t hear me," said Jonas.
"Hal--loo!" cried out Josey, as loud as he could call.
There was no answer; but, in a few seconds afterwards, the cry was repeated, as at first.
"You see," said Jonas, "that the wind blows this way, and they can"t hear us. We must go out after them."
Josey tried to dissuade Jonas from this plan; but Jonas said he must go, and that, as they had oxen with them, there would be no danger. "First,"
said he, "we must throw off our load."
So he and Josey went to work, and threw off the rafters, as fast as they could. Jonas reserved four or five rafters, which he left upon the sled.
Then he turned the oxen in the direction from which the cry had come.
They continued to hear it at moderate intervals.
They descended gradually a short distance across the field, and then they came to the sh.o.r.e of the pond. Here Jonas took off one of his rafters, and laid it upon the sh.o.r.e, with one end raised up out of the snow.
"What is that for?" said Josey.
"To show us the way back to our road," said Jonas. "I place it so that it points right back,--the way we came."
"We can tell by our tracks," said Josey.
"No," said Jonas; "our tracks will all be covered up before we come back."
Jonas then drove down upon the pond, guiding his oxen in the direction of the cry. He kept Josey upon the sled, so as not to exhaust his strength. He rode himself, too, as much as he could; but he was obliged to jump off very frequently, to keep the oxen in a right direction. He stopped occasionally to put down a rafter, placing it so that its length should be in the line of his road, and taking care to sink one end into the snow, so as to leave the other out as far as possible, to prevent its being all buried up before they should return. Every now and then, too, he would answer the cry, as loud as he could call.
At last, after they had toiled along in this way for some time, Jonas thought that he succeeded in making the travellers hear; for, immediately after his call, he would hear a calling from them, following it, and speaking in a different way, though Jonas could not understand what was said. He kept pressing forward steadily, and, before long, he found that the travellers were silent, excepting immediately after he called to them,--when there was a sound as if intended for a response, though Jonas could not tell what was said.
"We shall get to them, Josey," said he.
"Who do you suppose it is?" said Josey.
"I don"t know; very probably some travellers lost upon the pond."
Jonas was right in his conjecture: as they came nearer and nearer, the sounds became more distinct.
"Hal--loo!" vociferated Jonas.
"Hal--loo!" was the answer. "Can--you--come--and--help--us?"
"Ay, ay," said Jonas; "we"re coming."