hen Brick yawned, stretched himself, and sat up. He looked at his
watch.

"Great Scott!" he ejaculated. "After four o'clock! What a sleep we've
had!"

Then he noticed a sprinkling of snow on the pine boughs, and saw quite a
layer of it in the front corners of the cabin. A loud humming noise was
ringing in his ears, and mingled with it was a deep, sonorous roar.
Brick threw off the blanket and crawled to the door. He pulled the sled
away and partly lifted the flap of canvas. When he saw a solid wall of
snow staring him in the face, he uttered a shout that instantly woke his
companions.

"Look out, or we'll have a cave-in!" cried Jerry, as he pushed the sled
back in place. "Whew! what a storm this is! Just hear the wind roaring!"

"How are we going to see out?" asked Hamp.

For answer, Jerry took an ax and chopped a small, oblong hole in the
front wall of the cabin, at the height of five feet from the ground. The
boys crowded in front of it and looked out.

To say that they were astonished and alarmed, would but feebly express
their feelings. The snow was level with the hole, and lay to the depth
of five feet all through the ravine. The air was white with swirling
flakes, and the lofty trees to right and left were creaking and groaning
in the teeth of a tremendous gale.

Fortunately the storm was blowing from the northeast, and thus the cabin
was effectively screened by the upper bank of the ravine. Had it been
exposed, even partially, to the gale, it would have been demolished long
ago.

Jerry stuffed an old coat into the hole to shut out the bitterly cold
air that filtered through.

"This is a pretty ugly fix," he said, gravely. "I hope the storm won't
keep up."

"We're snug enough in here, at any rate," replied Hamp.

"And we can stand a long siege," added Brick, who was disposed to be
cheerful. To him, a snowstorm suggested only the pleasing excitement of
winter sports.

"We are all right as long as the wind don't change," responded Jerry,
"but if it does--then good-by to the cabin. The snow itself is not as
deep as it looks. The wind blowing over the bank makes a sort of an eddy
behind it, and all this snow in the ravine has drifted. It will keep on
drifting, too--higher and higher."

"We'll find a way to pull through," said Hamp, confidently. "I don't
believe the wind is going to change."

"It may sheer to the east," suggested Brick.

"That is just what I am afraid of," replied Jerry. "But we won