can scarcely stand now; and, although it is bitterly cold
here, it would be worse on the top of the hill. No, we have got to step
here all night, that is clear."

"We shall be dead before morning!" Tom roared.

"I will hit you in the eye, Tom Jackson, if you don't shut up; you are
as bad as a girl; I am ashamed of you. Now, what we have got to do, is
to find some sort of shelter, either a wall or bush, and we must keep on
until we come to something. Keep awake, Jimmy; we shan't have much
farther to go, and then you can lie down quietly."

They went on for a bit.

"It is no use," Dick said. "They don't put walls across bottoms; more
likely to find one either to the right or left. Now, Tom, you stop here
for a minute or two, and I will look about; you keep shouting every
minute, so that I can find my way back to you."

Turning off, he began to ascend the next hill, and in two or three
minutes shouted the glad news to Tom that he had found the wall; then he
returned.

Jimmy, cheered at the prospect of lying down, made an effort, and they
soon reached the wall.

Like most of the walls in Derbyshire, it was formed of flat stones laid
without mortar, some four feet high.

"Now, Tom, set to work; get some stones off the wall on both sides, and
build up two other walls against this; three feet wide inside will do,
and just long enough to lie in. Here, Jimmy, you help; it will keep you
awake, and, you see, the higher we make the walls the snugger it will
be; we will have quite a nice house."

The boys all set to work, and in half an hour three walls were built.
At the point where the two side walls touched the other, they were three
feet high, and sloped down to two at the lower end.

"Now, Jimmy, you chuck the snow out. Tom and I will go, one each way,
along the wall; likely enough we may come upon some bushes--they often
grow in shelter of the walls: if we can find a few sticks we will cover
the house over. Lots of these stones are a couple of feet long, and we
will manage a sort of roof. The snow will soon cover it, and we shall
be as warm as possible."

A quarter of an hour later the two boys returned; both had been
successful and brought a bundle of sticks; these were laid across the
top, interspersed with smaller twigs, the ends being kept down with
stones to prevent their being blown away. The last were placed in
position after the boys had crept inside. They did not attempt to roof
it with stone