"Sakes alive! There"s somethin" a-stirrin" in the road. What can it be?--Sarah, call to Joshaway! There"s a human critter out there in the snow."
Susie almost held her breath, for there was surely a commotion in the great drift a few rods beyond the gate. The boys saw it too, and they and the deacon and the hired man began to shout, as if shouting would help a fellow in a deep snow.
"Father," said Corry, "shall we go and see who it is?"
"Not as long as he can thrash around like that. He"ll get through."
"He"s gone away under," said Port. "There he comes--no, he"s under again. It"s awful deep."
"He"ll be smothered."
Susie was watching that commotion in the snow as she had never watched any thing before, and just then a fleecy head came out on this side of the high drift.
"Aunt Judith!--Aunt Sarah!--It"s Vosh Stebbins!"
"They"re all snowed under, and he"s come through to tell us. Oh, dear!"
"Hurrah, boys!"
There was nothing at all doleful in the ringing shout Vosh sent towards the house the moment he got the snow out of his mouth.
"Have you got any snow at your house? There"s more"n we want up our way.
Let ye have loads of it, and not charge a cent."
"Come on, Vosh," said the deacon. "How"d you find the roads?"
"Sleighin" enough to last all summer, if you don"t waste it. More like swimming than walking."
"I"d say it was. Come on in and warm yourself."
Both the boys were brushing the snow from him as soon as he got to the gate, and all the women-folk were out on the stoop to welcome him. Aunt Judith talked as fast as his own mother could have done, and insisted on his sitting down before the fireplace while she brought him a cup of coffee, and a gla.s.s of currant-wine, and a piece of pie, and then she said she would make him some pepper-tea.
"Now, Miss Farnham," said Vosh, "I ain"t hurt a bit."
"And your mother?"
"Never was better; but she was worried about you folks, and I said I"d come over and see.--Susie, did you know it"d been snowing a little out of doors?"
"How did you ever get through?"
"I just burrowed most of the way, like a wood-chuck."
"You can"t go back by the same hole," chuckled Corry.
"I could if it was there. Guess I won"t stay long, though: mother"ll be afraid I"m lost in the drift."
He was right about that; and, after a few minutes of merry talk, they all gathered at the front-gate to see him plunge in again.
"He"ll get through," said the deacon. "There"s the makin" of a man in Vosh. He goes right straight ahead into any thing."
The last thing he had said before starting was,--
"All Benton Valley"ll be out a-breakin" roads to-morrow."
"That"s so," said the deacon; but, after Vosh had gone, he added, "and snow-ploughs won"t be of any kind of use."
"How"ll we work it?" said Corry.
"Teams and sleds. It"ll be a tough job, and the roads"ll be pretty rough for a while."
"Corry," said Port, "how"ll they do it,--cart the snow away?"
"Where"d they cart it to? You just wait and see."
They were all tired enough to go to bed early, but the first rays of daylight next morning saw them all rushing out again. Port felt a little stiff and sore, but he determined to do his part at road-breaking.
The snow lay pretty level in the roads, for the greater part; and you could see the top rails of the fences here and there, enough to go by.
A little after breakfast the wide gate was swung open, and then the deacon"s hired man came down the lane, driving the black team at a sharp trot, with the wood-sleigh behind them.
Faster, faster, through the gate, and out into the snow, with a chorus of shouts to urge them on.
The spirited, powerful fellows reared and plunged and snorted; but before long they seemed almost disposed to call it fun, and enjoy it.
"Up the road first!" shouted the deacon. "We"ll break that way till we get beyond Stebbins"s."
There was work for men and boys, as well as horses; and the snow-shovels were plied rapidly behind the plunging team. Porter Hudson quickly understood that a great deal of road could be opened in such a way as that, if all the farmers turned out to do it. They were likely to; for none of them could afford to be blocked in, and public opinion would have gone pretty sharply against any man who dodged his share of such important work as that.
It was hardest on the horses, willingly as they went at it; and at the end of an hour or so the deacon brought out his second team, a pair of strong brown plough-horses. When they were tired, out came the best yoke of oxen; and it was fun enough to see the great, clumsy creatures, all but buried in a deep drift, slowly but strongly shouldering their way forward, and every now and then trying to turn around and get out of the sc.r.a.pe.
"A skittish yoke wouldn"t do," said Corry. "They wouldn"t move any way but backwards."
Long before that, the road had been opened "beyond Stebbins"s," and Vosh had joined them with his snow-shovel. His paths were all in a condition that spoke well for his industry, and the deacon told him so. Mrs.
Stebbins was at the gate, and she remarked,--
"Tell ye what, deacon, if you think my Vosh can"t do any thing but spell for dixinaries, you"re mistaken. He"s a worker, he is."
"That"s so."
But there was no need of his saying much more, for there in the road behind him were Mrs. Farnham and aunt Judith, and Susie and Pen; and you could have heard every voice among them, till the front-door shut behind the last one.
That was Pen, and her last word had been a shout to Vosh in the road:--
"We"ve got more snow in our front-yard than you have, anyhow."
They were now pushing their work towards the village, and could already catch glimpses of other "gangs," as Vosh called them, here and there down the road. In some places, where the snow was not so deep, they made "turnouts" wide enough for loaded sleighs to pa.s.s each other.
"If we didn"t," said Vosh, "one team"d have to lie down and let the other drive over it."