treading upon you. Dear me! How cramped we are
here!"

"It's terribly cold," said the Bear-mother shivering. "I can feel
myself freezing in every hair."

"Wrap your shawl round you, and stamp about a little."

Fru Bjornson attempted to carry out the directions, but the space was
so small there was scarcely room to move in it.

The air seemed to get colder and colder; Ingold's fur turned
frost-white, and she twined her apron round her head to prevent
herself from being frost-bitten.

"Oh, this is awful," quaked the Bear-mother. "We shall all die or be
turned into icicles if we can't get out before long!"

The Bear-father had put up his coat-collar and tied his bandanna
pocket-handkerchief over his ears. His hair was also covered with
white crystals, and he was seized with an attack of coughing which
obliged him to borrow the Bear-mother's shawl to bury his head in, so
that the sound might not be heard outside.

"This is painful in the extreme," he said in a choked voice as he
emerged gasping. "A cough lozenge at this moment might be the saving
of us!"

"What shall we do if the enemy hears us!" cried Fru Bjornson. "Here! I
have just found a peppermint-drop in my pocket. Let us divide it into
three. It may be some slight assistance."

They soon discovered, however, that lozenges were utterly powerless to
keep out that biting air, and the Bear-mother seated herself
resignedly on an ice-block.

"It's no good struggling against fate," she murmured. "We shall be
found by the children, I suppose. You'd better keep your arms down
straight, father; and freeze as narrow as possible. Then they will be
able to get you out of the opening without much difficulty. It seems
hard to think they will never know the true facts of the case," she
continued mournfully. "Our epitaph will probably be 'Sat down
carelessly in an Ice-house!'"

"Don't despair, Mother," cried Herr Bjornson, who had one eye
anxiously applied to the crack in the trap-door. "I see the back gate
opening. In another minute we shall know the worst--Hi! What! Well, I
never! Who do you think it is, Mother? Why, _the Schoolmaster_!"

Herr Badger indeed it was, who had come off in a great hurry to
complain of the disgraceful behaviour of his pupils, and being very
excited had inadvertently trodden on the wire of the alarm bell as he
entered the private grounds of the Bear-family.

He seemed a little surprised as the strange procession suddenly rose
up out of