been forced to melt a piece of ice in a pan over the fire in
order to have water with which to make the coffee.

"Whew!" exclaimed Capt. Noah, coming in from deck and closing the door as
quickly as possible. "My hands are almost frozen. This is as bad as a trip
to the North Pole. Perhaps worse, for we are totally unprepared for this
kind of weather."

Just then Mr. Jonah and the boys came in, rubbing their hands and stamping
their feet to keep warm.

"Merry Christmas!" laughed Ham, "the skating's fine out on the ice floe!"

"How jolly!" cried Marjorie. "Let's go skating after breakfast!"

"No, sir-e-e," said Capt. Noah. "The boys must help me float the Ark. One
of the rubber-tired wheels is crushed and it will take a lot of hard work
to get her off."

"We'd better set about it as soon as possible," said Mr. Jonah, after
Capt. Noah had made an inspection. "Some of the animals are nearly
perishing with the cold. The monkeys are rolled up so tight you'd think
they were fur balls. Only the polar bears seem to enjoy life, and they are
just crazy to take a run on the ice."

"Let them wait," said Capt. Noah; "we have more serious things to attend
to than pleasure for the moment."

"Well, come and get a good hot breakfast first," said Mrs. Noah, bringing
in the steaming coffee pot and a plate of hot corn muffins. "After
breakfast you'll all feel differently."

This was, indeed, good advice, and when breakfast was over Capt. Noah
said, "Get the crowbar and the wooden rollers, Japheth. We'll see if we
can't start the old Ark moving. Maybe she's stuck too deep in the ice, but
we'll try, at any rate."

"Here, my little girl," said kind Mrs. Noah to Marjorie, "put on this
muffler if you're going out. It's pretty cold."

So Marjorie tied the warm muffler around her neck and stepped out on deck.

A beautiful sight met her eyes. Towering high above was a mountain of
glittering ice, while as far as the eye could reach was a field of ice and
snow.

Under the rays of the morning sun parts of the great berg glittered like a
rainbow.

It was so cold that Marjorie had to jump up and down to keep her toes from
freezing.

Down on the ice, close to the Ark, Capt. Noah and his crew were busily at
work. One of the auto wheels had sunk deep into the ice and acted like an
anchor. The other wheels also were embedded in the ice so that the Ark was
held as if in a vise.

"Guess we'll have to give it up," exclaimed Capt. Noah after