s, for the supply of sticks and brushwood was large enough
to catch the snow-flakes as they fell, and these would soon form a
covering, while it would have been difficult to balance the stones.

Jimmy was by this time in a state almost of lethargy; but the others
were fairly warm from their exertions. They now lay down close beside
the younger boy, one on each side. At first they felt the cold
extremely.

"Let us keep awake as long as we can," Dick said.

"I don't feel inclined to sleep at all," Tom answered; "my hands and
feet feel frozen, but I am warm enough everywhere else, and the ground
is precious hard and bumpy."

"I am only afraid about Jimmy," Dick said; "he is sound asleep, and he
was so awfully cold; lie as close as you can to him, Tom, and put your
arm over him and keep your legs huddled up against his."

"It feels warmer than it did," he went on, after a pause of half an
hour; "don't you think so, Tom?"

"A lot warmer," Tom said. "I expect the snow has made a good thick
roof."

"Yes, and the wind does not blow through the stones as it did. I expect
the snow is drifting up all round; it was getting very deep against the
wall when we got in, and if it goes on all night, Tom, I should not
wonder if we are covered deep before morning. The wind always sweeps it
off the hills, and makes deep drifts in the bottoms."

"What shall we do, then?"

"I don't know," Dick answered; "but there will be plenty of time to
think of that in the morning. I think Jimmy is all right, Tom; I have
just put my hand inside his waistcoat and he feels quite warm now. Say
your prayers, and then let us try to get off to sleep."

This they were not very long in doing, for the air in the little hut was
soon heated by the action of their bodies. Outside the storm was still
raging, and the wind, laden with swirling snow from the uplands, was
piling it high in the valleys. Already the hut was covered and the wall
behind it.

All night and all next day the snow continued to fall; the next day, and
the next, it kept on. Old folks down in Castleton said they never
remembered such a storm. It lay three feet deep in the fields, and
there was no saying how deep the drifts might be in the hollows. For
the first two days the wind had tried its best to keep the hills clear,
but it had tired of the work, and for the last two had ceased to blow,
and the great feathered flakes formed steadily and silently.

Tom was the first to