Excuse me, but I don't want to be here at such a time, don't you know,"
answered the Englishman.

The wind increased steadily, and at midnight it was blowing so furiously
that Dave thought the shelter might go over. He went towards the door,
to find a quantity of snow sifting in above the sill.

"Hello, it must be snowing again!" he remarked. "That's too bad, for it
will make traveling worse than ever."

It was snowing, and the downfall continued all night and half of the
next day. The wind piled it up against the house until it reached the
roof, burying two of the windows completely from sight.

"This is a regular North Pole experience," remarked Roger, as he bustled
around in the morning, trying to get warm. "I don't know that I want to
go much further north."

"Don't want to become an arctic explorer, then?" queried Granbury
Lapham.

"Not much! Say, stir up the fire, or I'll be frozen stiff."

Wood was piled on the fire, and soon a pot of steaming coffee made all
feel better. When the man in charge went out to look at the sheep in the
various folds Dave went with him. The air was filled with snow, and it
was very dark.

"This is terrible," said Dave, on returning. He was thinking of his
father and the others of the exploring party.

"Land of the Midnight Sun," returned the senator's son, laconically.

"The man says they'll not return to-day," said Granbury Lapham. "It
would not be safe on the mountain trail."

"I thought as much," answered Dave. "Well, all we can do, I suppose, is
to wait." And he heaved a deep sigh.

The day passed slowly, for the place afforded nothing in the way of
amusement, and even if it had, Dave was too much worried about his
father to be interested. All went out among the sheep and saw them fed.
The folds were long, low, and narrow, and the occupants huddled together
"just like a flock of sheep," as Roger remarked with a grin.

"What timid creatures they are," said he, a little later. "I suppose you
can do almost anything with them."

"Not with the rams," answered Dave. And then he went on: "Do you
remember Farmer Cadmore's ram and how we put him in Job Haskers' room?"

"I don't believe these animals are quite so ugly," said the senator's
son, and went up to one of the rams in question. The animal backed away
a few feet, then of a sudden it leaped forward, lowered its head, and
sent Roger sprawling on his back.

"Wow!" grunted the youth. "Ho! chase him off!" And he lost no