"Get the door open, Dave," called d.i.c.k.
Darrin unbarred the door, trying to swing it open. Tom Reade sprang to his aid, for the bottom of the door was frozen to the sill.
"Bring the hot water, Hen," called Reade.
"Get it yourself," grumbled Hen. But when Tom turned, and Hen saw his face, the latter made haste to bring the tea-kettle.
[Ill.u.s.tration: d.i.c.k Plied His Shovel Vigorously.]
"I"d better pour the water," proposed Tom, taking the kettle. "d.i.c.k, you and Dave begin to yank on the door as soon as you see the hot stream trickling on below."
Reade made economical use of the water, yet it took considerable pouring to loosen up the door at the sill.
"Better go slow with that water," warned Dutcher. "It"s the last there is in the place."
"Humph!" retorted Tom. "Once we get outside I guess we can dig our way to the spring."
At last the door yielded and swung open. A ma.s.s of snow blew in upon them. d.i.c.k leaped at the white wall beyond and began plying his shovel vigorously.
"It"s light, and can be easily handled," he called back over his shoulder.
So Dave waited until d.i.c.k had made a start of three or four feet. Then he moved out beside his chum, while Greg, the iron shovel in hand, stood at hand waiting for the other two to make room enough for him to be able to help them.
b.u.mp! went the door, for those inside, without coats or exercise, felt the cold that rushed into the cabin.
"Where to?" called Dave, for the wind carried their voices off in the howling blast. "To the spring?"
"We"d better," d.i.c.k replied, "as we"re out of water."
Between the depth of the snow and the fury of the storm the Grammar School boys quickly discovered that they had taken a huge task upon themselves. After more than ten minutes of laborious shoveling all three paused, as by common consent, and looked at the work accomplished. They had gone barely a dozen feet, and under foot, all the way back to the cabin door, the snow was still some two feet deep.
The distance from the door to the spring being some ninety feet, it was plain that more than an hour would be needed for digging the way to the spring.
"What"s the use of all this trouble?" shouted Greg. "We can melt snow, anyway."
"Snow water doesn"t taste very good," objected Dave Darrin.
"Besides, we don"t want to admit ourselves stumped by a little snow,"
urged d.i.c.k. "Come on, fellows; we can make it if we have grit and industry enough. Here goes!"
With that d.i.c.k Prescott began to shovel harder than ever, so the two chums added their efforts. Truth to tell, however, ere they had gone another six feet through the big drifts, their backs were aching. They could have progressed more rapidly, but for the fact that the wind blew much of the snow back into the trench they were cutting through the great banks of white stuff.
"Are we going to make it?" asked Dave dubiously at last.
"We"ve got to," d.i.c.k retorted.
"The other fellows ought to come out and help us," proposed Greg.
"That"s not a very bad idea, either," d.i.c.k agreed, as he started shoveling once more. "Greg, go back and tell them what we want."
Prescott and Darrin went on shoveling, manfully, until Tom, Dan and Harry came wallowing along over what there was of a path and took the shovels.
After that, with twenty minute shifts, the work went along more rapidly, though once in a while one of the shovelers had to go back over the path, digging out where more snow had blown in.
Hen Dutcher was not asked to share in this strenuous work. He had enough to do in the cabin, and this outdoor performance was no work, anyway, for a whiner.
"Get the axe and some of the buckets," called d.i.c.k finally, as he, at the head of a shift, reached and located the spring. The water was, of course, covered with a thick armor of ice. Greg moved into position with the axe, striking fast and hard. Dave and Tom, with the snow shovels, moved back over the opened way, keeping it clear in defiance of the gale. As soon as Greg had the ice chopped away sufficiently, d.i.c.k, Dan and Harry began to carry water. There was a water barrel in the cabin.
"If we had filled this yesterday we wouldn"t have had to work so hard to-day," half grumbled Dan.
"Well, we want to do something, don"t we?" retorted Prescott. "What did we come out into the woods for? Just to sit around indoors and eat and sleep?"
With the utmost industry it took a long time for the youngsters to fill the water barrel.
"Now, we"ve enough for a week, anyway," remarked Dan, as he and d.i.c.k poured the last pailfuls into the barrel.
"Perhaps enough for forty eight hours, though we don"t want to be too sure," replied Prescott. "We want water enough for cleanliness, for cooking and for drinking. That will be quite a lot, I guess."
The others now came in, for their outdoor exercise had taken up more than two hours of morning time.
"Wood, next, I suppose," remarked Tom, gazing regretfully at the already diminished pile of wood.
"No; there"s wood enough to last until to-morrow; probably until the day after," Dave answered.
"But do any of you fellows see the storm stopping?" queried d.i.c.k.
"No," Dave and Tom both admitted.
"Then, as there"s no telling how long this good old blizzard will last, we"ll do well to stack all the wood we can carry into this cabin."
"Why not take a little rest first?" urged Dan. "I"ll do my share of the work, all the time, but I"ll admit that I"m tired just now."
"We can divide into two shifts, then," suggested d.i.c.k. "As I don"t feel very tired, I"ll get into the first shift. Tom, do you feel plenty strong?"
"Strong?" sniffed young Reade. "Humph! I"m ready, right now, to meet and vanquish the biggest Bermuda onion that you can produce."
Dave had already started for the door. These three leaders of boydom in Gridley began to ply their shovels vigorously, starting from a point in the path already made to the spring. Working through drifts, in some instances more than six feet deep, it was slow work. After twenty minutes they went back to the cabin, Greg, Harry and Dan coming out to take up the work.
Hen Dutcher was still toiling hard, for he had concluded that industry was the only way to save himself unpleasant happenings.
"How soon are you fellows going to knock off and begin to think about dinner?" demanded Hen.
"When we get good enough appet.i.tes, I suppose," laughed d.i.c.k.
"Appet.i.tes?" sniffed Dutcher. "Huh! I could eat one side of a beef critter, right now."
"Go out in the snow and help one of the fellows, then," advised Tom dryly. "After that you"ll be able to eat the whole critter."
"But when are you going to eat?" insisted Hen. "It"s noon now."