ndscape about the hunting lodge. It was snow, snow, snow
everywhere--on all sides. Within the house it was warm and cozy, and for
months afterward it was a pleasant recollection to talk of the hours
spent about the great fire in the living room.

But in spite of the fact that his animals were safe, except for the two
that had died, Mr. Macksey seemed worried. Several times he paid a visit
to the cellar, or the store room, where the provisions were kept, and
more than once the girls heard him murmuring to himself.

"What is the trouble?" Alice asked him once, as he came up from a trip
to the cellar.

"Well, I'm afraid you folks will have to go on short rations if the
supplies don't come in soon from the store," he replied. "I've got
plenty of meat on hand, but other things are somewhat scarce."

"Then we won't starve?" she asked.

"Well, maybe not actually starve, but you may be hungry for certain
things."

"Oh, I'm not fussy!" Alice laughed. "I can eat anything."

The storm was so severe and so wide-spread, that, in about a week, there
was an actual shortage of provisions at Elk Lodge. The meals had to be
curtailed in regard to certain dishes, and there were loud complaints
from Mr. Bunn and Mr. Sneed, as well as from Miss Pennington and Miss
Dixon. But the others made the best of it.

"I wish I had never come to this horrid place!" exclaimed Miss
Pennington, when her request for a fancy dish had to be denied.

"You may go back to New York any time you wish," observed Mr. Pertell,
with a grim humor, as he looked out on the great piles of snow. It would
have been impossible to get half-way to the station.

Miss Pennington "sniffed" and said nothing.

But there was no actual suffering at Elk Lodge. Before it got to that
point Mr. Macksey hitched up six horses to a big sled and made his way
into town. He brought back enough provisions for a small company of
soldiers.

"Now let it 'bliz' if it wants to!" he cried, as he and his men stocked
up the storeroom.

CHAPTER XX

THE THAW

"Now for some hard work," said Mr. Pertell one day, about ten days after
the big storm. "I think we can safely go out, and make some of the
scenes in the play 'Snowbound,'" he went on. "There will not be much
danger that we will be caught in another blizzard; will there?" he asked
of Mr. Macksey.

"I should hope not!" was the answer. "I don't believe there is any snow
left in the clouds. Still, don't take too many chanc