and unearthly-looking; but I did not have, so I took it under
one arm, though it seemed half as big as a barrel, and pulled myself
up-stairs.

In another minute I was outdoors and hobbling along as fast as I
could. The howling of the red beasts in the cellar still came as loud
as ever. I got to the window, dropped on my knees, and took away the
board. They did not yet have a light, and were struggling and
caterwauling in the dark like, it seemed, a thousand demons. But I say
I had the worst demon with me.

The lamp was burning well. I set the thing on the ground, square in
front of the window, with the horrible face turned in and looking down
into the darkness. Then I rolled out of the way.

I had truly thought that those savages had been making a great noise
before, but it had been nothing to the sound which now came from the
cellar. Such another shrieking and screaming I never heard before nor
since. I would not have believed that any lot of human beings could
make such an uproar. Then I heard them fighting their way up the
stairs and go squawking and bellowing out the front door of the
store.

When I heard the last one go I seized up the pumpkin, took it on one
shoulder, and with my stick went hippety-hopping out through the alley
and along the sidewalk after them. They were going away in the
darkness for their ponies like the wind. I went to the end of the walk
and, holding the lantern in both hands, raised and lowered and waved
it at them. Not once did they stop their howls of terror, and I could
hear and partly see them tumbling onto their ponies in all ways and
plunging off through the drifts to the west like madmen. I longed to
be on Dick's back with my lantern to chase them, but I knew not where
Dick was, and my ankle had already borne too much, as it told me
plainly. I got back to the hotel as best I could, put up the lamp in
its place and sat down to rest.

But though I needed rest, I needed food more; so I started the fire
and looked about for something to eat. I soon found that the Indians
had left nothing except a few crusts of bread and some frozen eggs.
But I boiled the eggs and made out a sort of a meal. As I finished I
heard a yowl which I thought I knew, and, sure enough, when I looked
up, there was the cat still on the door.

This set me to laughing, and I said: "I wonder was ever a family so
scattered before on a Christmas night as is mine? There is Kaiser shut
in under a water-tank; Blossom