Perhaps she expected to see Jack Frost sitting in the rocking chair!
Quickly pulling on her slippers she ran to the porthole to ask her good friend the Weatherc.o.c.k the reason for this sudden drop in the temperature.
She found him, as usual, perched on the flagpole. His comb was very red, as if Jack Frost had given it a nip, and now and then he raised one leg to his breast to warm his toes in the fluffy feathers.
"Good morning," said Marjorie. "Isn"t it freezing?"
"Do you wonder?" answered the Weatherc.o.c.k, pointing to a large iceberg close at hand.
She turned to look and, sure enough, just a few feet away was a great mountain of ice.
"We"re aground on an iceberg," went on the Weatherc.o.c.k. "We ran into an ice floe last night and the Ark slipped upon the ledge of the iceberg and grounded."
"Goodness gracious!" cried Marjorie. "What are we ever going to do?"
"I"m sure I don"t know," answered the Weatherc.o.c.k. "I"ll have to get some woolen socks and a pair of felt shoes or my toes will be frostbitten!"
"Perhaps Mrs. Noah will knit you a pair," said Marjorie. "I"m going down to breakfast now and I"ll speak to her about it."
"Thank you," replied the Weatherc.o.c.k. "And tell her I wouldn"t mind having a worsted m.u.f.fler, too."
Down below matters were even worse, for the fresh water had frozen during the night, so that it was impossible to give the animals a drink.
Mrs. Noah had been forced to melt a piece of ice in a pan over the fire in order to have water with which to make the coffee.
"Whew!" exclaimed Capt. Noah, coming in from deck and closing the door as quickly as possible. "My hands are almost frozen. This is as bad as a trip to the North Pole. Perhaps worse, for we are totally unprepared for this kind of weather."
Just then Mr. Jonah and the boys came in, rubbing their hands and stamping their feet to keep warm.
"Merry Christmas!" laughed Ham, "the skating"s fine out on the ice floe!"
"How jolly!" cried Marjorie. "Let"s go skating after breakfast!"
"No, sir-e-e," said Capt. Noah. "The boys must help me float the Ark. One of the rubber-tired wheels is crushed and it will take a lot of hard work to get her off."
"We"d better set about it as soon as possible," said Mr. Jonah, after Capt. Noah had made an inspection. "Some of the animals are nearly perishing with the cold. The monkeys are rolled up so tight you"d think they were fur b.a.l.l.s. Only the polar bears seem to enjoy life, and they are just crazy to take a run on the ice."
"Let them wait," said Capt. Noah; "we have more serious things to attend to than pleasure for the moment."
"Well, come and get a good hot breakfast first," said Mrs. Noah, bringing in the steaming coffee pot and a plate of hot corn m.u.f.fins. "After breakfast you"ll all feel differently."
This was, indeed, good advice, and when breakfast was over Capt. Noah said, "Get the crowbar and the wooden rollers, j.a.pheth. We"ll see if we can"t start the old Ark moving. Maybe she"s stuck too deep in the ice, but we"ll try, at any rate."
"Here, my little girl," said kind Mrs. Noah to Marjorie, "put on this m.u.f.fler if you"re going out. It"s pretty cold."
So Marjorie tied the warm m.u.f.fler around her neck and stepped out on deck.
A beautiful sight met her eyes. Towering high above was a mountain of glittering ice, while as far as the eye could reach was a field of ice and snow.
Under the rays of the morning sun parts of the great berg glittered like a rainbow.
It was so cold that Marjorie had to jump up and down to keep her toes from freezing.
Down on the ice, close to the Ark, Capt. Noah and his crew were busily at work. One of the auto wheels had sunk deep into the ice and acted like an anchor. The other wheels also were embedded in the ice so that the Ark was held as if in a vise.
"Guess we"ll have to give it up," exclaimed Capt. Noah after an hour"s hard work, during which time the Ark had not moved an inch.
"We"d better make up our minds to winter here until the iceberg floats into a warmer climate and either melts or breaks apart."
"That"s cheerful," said Mr. Jonah. "I"ve nothing but summer flannels and a mackintosh with me."
"What about some of the poor animals who are used to the Torrid Zone?"
replied Capt. Noah, shouldering the crowbar and climbing up the rope ladder to the deck.
Mr. Jonah did not reply, but turned up his coat collar and stamped upon his feet to warm them.
"The hairless Mexican dog will surely die if we don"t do something for him," said Ham. "I think I"ll ask mother if she won"t let him stay in the kitchen."
But Mrs. Noah did not seem very pleased over the suggestion.
"Gracious me!" she said. "Shem already has two parrots, a marmoset and a little green snake in the kitchen. I don"t suppose one more animal would make much difference, if it will only keep from under my feet. I nearly stepped on one of the snakes this morning, and the kitchen is none too large, anyway."
"Don"t you boys worry your mother any more," said Capt. Noah sternly. "The animals have got to make the best of it. Any one who travels by sea undergoes some risk and I"m sure I"m as careful a captain as a man could be. It"s lucky we didn"t go down to the bottom of the sea when we struck the berg, instead of running up on it safely."
After dinner Capt. Noah and Mr. Jonah held a consultation as to what was the best thing to do under the circ.u.mstances.
"Of course, some of the animals, like the polar bears and the seals, will enjoy a vacation on the ice. The penguins, too, will be glad to have a little change. We can let them out and the rest of the Arctic pa.s.sengers.
But how to keep the other animals warm, puzzles me. We haven"t coal enough to keep the furnaces going for very long."
Mr. Jonah stroked his chin reflectively. "We might dig a channel from the Ark to the edge of the berg and then float the Ark," he said, after a pause.
"That"s a pretty good scheme," said Capt. Noah. "We"ll get to work at once. Here, you boys, get the pickaxes and come with me."
By evening the ca.n.a.l was finished. "Now, when the tide rises," said Capt.
Noah, resting on the handle of his pickax, "perhaps the old tub will float."
It was now quite dark, so all hands returned to the Ark.
The animals which had been allowed to play on the ice had all returned except the two polar bears, who begged Capt. Noah to let them stay out all night, as they wished to see the Northern Lights from the top of the iceberg.
It was a very tired family that gathered around the supper table that evening. But after the meal was over the Weatherc.o.c.k began to sing:
"It"s time for bed, and all the Ark Should soon be snoring in the dark, The elephant and kangaroo, The lion and the curled horn gnu, Have gone to bed, and so should you, So good night, c.o.c.k-a-doodle-doo!"
[Ill.u.s.tration: Ham rescues the Polar Bears from the iceberg.]