wake.

"Holloa!" he exclaimed, "where are we? Oh! I remember. Dick, are you
awake?"

"Yes, I am awake now," Dick said. "What is it? It is not morning yet.
I seem to have been asleep a long time, and don't my bones just ache?
Jimmy, old boy, are you all right?"

"Yes," Jimmy grunted.

"It is quite warm," Dick said. "It feels very close, and how still it
is! The wind has quite gone down. Do you know, Tom, I think it must be
morning. There seems a faint sort of light. I can see the stones in
the wall behind you."

"So it must," Tom assented. "Oh! how stifling it is!" and he raised
himself into a sitting position.

"I am afraid we are buried deep in the snow-drift. Put your hand up,
Tom; don't you feel some of these sticks are bent in the middle?"

"Ever so much; there must be a great weight on them. What are we to do,
Dick; shall we try and dig a way out?"

"That will be no good," Dick answered; "not if it is deep; and if it has
been snowing all night, there is no saying how deep it may be this
morning down in this bottom. This drift-snow is like dust. I remember
last winter that Bill Jones and Harry Austin and I tried to make a
tunnel in a deep drift, but the snow fell in as fast as we scraped it
away. It was just like dry sand."

"We are all right for warmth," Tom said; "but it feels quite stifling."

"Yes, we must try and get some air," Dick said. "The roof-sticks are
close together down at our feet. There were three or four left over
when we had finished, so we can take them away without weakening the
roof. We might shove one of them up through the snow."

The sticks were removed carefully, but a quantity of fine snow fell in
on their feet. One was then shoved up through the top, but the only
effect, when it was removed, was that it was followed by some snow
powdering down on their faces.

"Let us tie four of them together," Dick said. "I have plenty of string
in my pocket."

This was done, fresh sticks being tied to the bottom as the first were
shoved up through the snow.

"Now, Tom, help me to work it about a bit, so as to press the snow all
round, and make a sort of tube."

For some time a shower of little particles fell as they worked, but
gradually these ceased. Then the stick was cautiously lowered, being
untied joint by joint, and looking up the boys gave a shout of pleasure.
At the top of the hole, which was some six inches wide at the bottom,
was a tiny patch of light