Will you give me some milk, please?"
"There is no milk, my dear," said Miss Wayland, who looked rather troubled. "The milkman has not come, and probably will not come to-night. There has never been such a storm here in my lifetime!"
she added. "Do you have such storms at home, my dear?"
"Oh, yes, indeed!" Maine said, cheerfully. "I don"t know that we often have so much wind as this, but the snow is nothing out of the way. Why, on Palm Sunday last year our milkman dug through a drift twenty feet deep to get at his cows. He was the only milkman who ventured out, and he took me and the minister"s wife to church in his little red pung.
"We were the only women in church, I remember. Miss Betsy Follansbee, who had not missed going to church in fifteen years, started on foot, after climbing out of her bedroom window to the shed roof and sliding down. All her doors were blocked up, and she lived alone, so there was no one to dig her out. But she got stuck in a drift about half-way, and had to stay there till one of the neighbors came by and pulled her out."
All the girls laughed at this, and even Miss Wayland smiled; but suddenly she looked grave again.
"Hark!" she said, and listened. "Did you not hear something?"
"We hear Boreas, Auster, Eurus, and Zephyrus," answered Old New York.
"Nothing else."
At that moment there was a lull in the screeching of the wind; all listened intently, and a faint sound was heard from without which was not that of the blast.
"A child!" said Ma.s.sachusetts, rising quickly. "It is a child"s voice.
I will go, Miss Wayland."
"I cannot permit it, Alice!" cried Miss Wayland, in great distress.
"I cannot allow you to think of it. You are just recovering from a severe cold, and I am responsible to your parents. What shall we do?
It certainly sounds like a child crying out in the pitiless storm.
Of course it _may_ be a cat--"
Maine had gone to the window at the first alarm, and now turned with shining eyes.
"It _is_ a child!" she said, quietly. "I have no cold, Miss Wayland.
I am going, of course."
Pa.s.sing by Ma.s.sachusetts, who had started out of her usual calm and stood in some perplexity, she whispered, "If it were freezing, it wouldn"t cry. I shall be in time. Get a ball of stout twine."
She disappeared. In three minutes she returned, dressed in her blanket coat, reaching half-way below her knees, scarlet leggings and gaily wrought moccasins; on her head a fur cap, with a band of sea-otter fur projecting over her eyes. In her hand she held a pair of snow-shoes. She had had no opportunity to wear her snow-shoeing suit all winter, and she was quite delighted.
"My child!" said Miss Wayland, faintly. "How can I let you go? My duty to your parents--what are those strange things, and what use are you going to make of them?"
By way of answer Maine slipped her feet into the snow-shoes, and, with Ma.s.sachusetts" aid, quickly fastened the thongs.
"The twine!" she said. "Yes, that will do; plenty of it. Tie it to the door-handle, square knot, so! I"m all right, dear; don"t worry."
Like a flash the girl was gone out into the howling night.
Miss Wayland wrung her hands and wept, and most of the girls wept with her. Virginia, who was curled up in a corner, really sick with fright, beckoned to Ma.s.sachusetts.
"Is there any chance of her coming back alive?" she asked, in a whisper. "I wish I had made up with her. But we may all die in this awful storm."
"Nonsense!" said Ma.s.sachusetts. "Try to have a little sense, Virginia!
Maine is all right, and can take care of herself; and as for whimpering at the wind, when you have a good roof over your head, it is too absurd."
For the first time since she came to school Ma.s.sachusetts forgot the study hour, as did every one else; and in spite of her brave efforts at cheerful conversation, it was a sad and an anxious group that sat about the fire in the pleasant parlor.
Maine went out quickly, and closed the door behind her; then stood still a moment, listening for the direction of the cry. She did not hear it at first, but presently it broke out--a piteous little wail, sounding louder now in the open air. The girl bent her head to listen.
Where was the child? The voice came from the right, surely! She would make her way down to the road, and then she could tell better.
Grasping the ball of twine firmly, she stepped forward, planting the broad snow-shoes lightly in the soft, dry snow. As she turned the corner of the house an icy blast caught her, as if with furious hands, shook her like a leaf, and flung her roughly against the wall.
Her forehead struck the corner, and for a moment she was stunned; but the blood trickling down her face quickly brought her to herself.
She set her teeth, folded her arms tightly, and stooping forward, measured her strength once more with that of the gale.
This time it seemed as if she were cleaving a wall of ice, which opened only to close behind her. On she struggled, unrolling her twine as she went.
The child"s cry sounded louder, and she took fresh heart. Pausing, she clapped her hand to her mouth repeatedly, uttering a shrill, long call. It was the Indian whoop, which her father had taught her in their woodland rambles at home.
The childish wail stopped; she repeated the cry louder and longer; then shouted, at the top of her lungs, "Hold on! Help is coming!"
Again and again the wind buffeted her, and forced her backward a step or two; but she lowered her head, and wrapped her arms more tightly about her body, and plodded on.
Once she fell, stumbling over a stump; twice she ran against a tree, for the white darkness was absolutely blinding, and she saw nothing, felt nothing but snow, snow. At last her snow-shoe struck something hard. She stretched out her hands--it was the stone wall. And now, as she crept along beside it, the child"s wail broke out again close at hand.
"Mother! O mother! mother!"
The girl"s heart beat fast.
"Where are you?" she cried. At the same moment she stumbled against something soft. A mound of snow, was it? No! for it moved. It moved and cried, and little hands clutched her dress.
She saw nothing, but put her hands down, and touched a little cold face. She dragged the child out of the snow, which had almost covered it, and set it on its feet.
"Who are you?" she asked, putting her face down close, while by vigorous patting and rubbing she tried to give life to the benumbed, cowering little figure, which staggered along helplessly, clutching her with half-frozen fingers.
"Benny Withers!" sobbed the child. "Mother sent me for the clothes, but I can"t get "em!"
"Benny Withers!" cried Maine. "Why, you live close by. Why didn"t you go home, child?"
"I can"t!" cried the boy. "I can"t see nothing. I tried to get to the school, an" I tried to get home, an" I can"t get nowhere "cept against this wall. Let me stay here now! I want to rest me a little."
He would have sunk down again, but Maine caught him up in her strong, young arms.
"Here, climb up on my back, Benny!" she said, cheerfully. "Hold on tight round my neck, and you shall rest while I take you home. So!
That"s a brave boy! Upsy, now! there you are! Now put your head on my shoulder--close! and hold on!"
Ah! how Maine blessed the heavy little brother at home, who _would_ ride on his sister"s back, long after mamma said he was too big. How she blessed the carryings up and down stairs, the "horsey rides"
through the garden and down the lane, which had made her shoulders strong!
Benny Withers was eight years old, but he was small and slender, and no heavier than six-year-old Philip. No need of telling the child to hold on, once he was up out of the cruel snow bed. He clung desperately round the girl"s neck, and pressed his head close against the woollen stuff.
Maine pulled her ball of twine from her pocket--fortunately it was a large one, and the twine, though strong, was fine, so that there seemed to be no end to it--and once more lowered her head, and set her teeth, and moved forward, keeping close to the wall, in the direction of Mrs. Withers"s cottage.
For awhile she saw nothing, when she looked up under the fringe of otter fur, which, long and soft, kept the snow from blinding her; nothing but the white, whirling drift which beat with icy, stinging blows in her face. But at last her eyes caught a faint glimmer of light, and presently a brighter gleam showed her Mrs. Withers"s gray cottage, now white like the rest of the world.
Bursting open the cottage door, she almost threw the child into the arms of his mother.