Doctor, binding them with the reins. Bringing more rails, he leaned them
to the others on the windward side and nailed a big blanket over them,
piecing it out with hemlock thatching, so it made a fairly comfortable
shelter. We were under the wind in this deep cut on Fadden's Hill, and
the snow piled in upon us rapidly. We had a warm blanket for Old Doctor
and two big buffalo robes for our own use. We gave him a good feed of
hay and oats, and then Uncle Eb cut up a fence rail with our hatchet and
built a roaring fire in the stove. We had got a bit chilly wading in the
snow, and the fire gave us a mighty sense of comfort.

'I thought somethin' might happen,' said Uncle Eb, as he hung his
lantern to the ridge pole and took a big paper parcel out of his great
coat pocket. 'I thought mebbe somethin' might happen, an' so I brought
along a bite o' luncheon.'

He gave us dried herring and bread and butter and cheese.

''S a little dry,' he remarked, while we were eating, 'but it's drier
where there's none.'

We had a pail of snow on top of the little stove and plenty of good
drinking water for ourselves and the Old Doctor in a few minutes.

After supper Uncle Eb went up the side of the cut and brought back a lot
of hemlock boughs and spread them under Old Doctor for bedding.

Then we all sat around the stove on the warm robes and listened to the
wind howling above our little roof and the stories of Uncle Eb. The
hissing of the snow as it beat upon the sledgehouse grew fainter by and
by, and Uncle Eb said he guessed we were pretty well covered up. We fell
asleep soon. I remember he stopped in the middle of a wolf story, and,
seeing that our eyes were shut, pulled us back from the fire a little
and covered us with one of the robes. It had been a mighty struggle
between Sleep and Romance, and Sleep had won. I roused myself and
begged him to go on with the story, but he only said, 'Hush, boy; it's
bedtime,' and turned up the lantern and went out of doors. I woke once
or twice in the night and saw him putting wood on the fire. He had put
out the light. The gleam of the fire shone on his face when he opened
the stove door.

'Gittin' a leetle cool here, Uncle Eb,' he was saying to himself.

We were up at daylight, and even then it was snowing and blowing
fiercely. There were two feet of snow on the sledgehouse roof, and we
were nearly buried in the bank. Uncle Eb had to do a lot of shoveling
to get out of doors and into the s