t too, but if they did they didn't say
anything--not at the time. I suppose they thought it didn't matter much,
anyhow, if they got the wood."

So they went right on having a good time, keeping up a nice fire, and
eating up whatever they had; for they thought the big snow couldn't last
as long as their wood and their things to eat, and every day they went
up to look out of the up-stairs windows to see how much had melted, and
every day they found it just about the same, only maybe a little
crustier on top, and the weather stayed _very cold_.

But they didn't mind it so long as they were warm and not hungry, and
they played games, and recited their pieces, and sang, and danced, and
said they had never had such a good time in all their lives.

[Illustration: ONE DAY MR. CROW FOUND HE WAS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE BARREL
OF EVERYTHING]

But one day when Mr. Crow went down into the store-room for supplies he
found that he was at the bottom of the barrel of everything they had,
and he came up looking pretty sober, though he didn't say anything about
it--not then, for he knew there were plenty of bones and odds and ends
he could scrape up, and he had a little flour and some meal in his
pantry; so he could make soup and gravy and johnny-cake and hash, which
he did right away, and they all said how fine such things were for a
change, and told Mr. Crow to go right on making them as long as he
wanted to, even if the snow stayed on till spring. And Mr. 'Possum and
Mr. 'Coon said it was like old times, and that Mr. Crow was probably the
very best provider in the Big Deep Woods.

Mr. Crow smiled, too, but he didn't feel like it much, for he knew that
even johnny-cake and gravy wouldn't last forever, and that unless the
snow went away pretty soon they would all be hungry and cold, for the
wood was getting low, too.

And one morning, when Mr. Crow went to his meal-sack and his flour-bag
and his pile of odds and ends there was just barely enough for
breakfast, and hardly that. And Mr. Crow didn't like to tell them about
it, for he knew they all thought he could keep right on making
johnny-cake and gravy forever, because they didn't have to stop to think
where things came from, as he did, and he was afraid they would blame
him when there was nothing more left.

So the Old Black Crow tried to step around lively and look pleasant, to
keep anybody from noticing, because he thought it might turn warm that
day and melt the snow; and when