CHAPTER XIV--SNOWED IN
Having been out in the cold and storm so long, Jim Bimby seemed to havebecome half frozen. He did not appear to understand what Mr. Bobbseyasked him. The old logger staggered to his feet, helped by some of themen from Cedar Camp, and looked about him.
"What's the matter?" asked Old Jim in a faint voice. "Did somethinghappen? I remember startin' off to get--to get something to eat for mywife and me. Then I fell down, tired out, I guess."
"I guess you did!" exclaimed Tom Case. "And if we hadn't found you,you'd have been done for. We must get you to shelter."
"Take him around behind this big pine tree a minute," suggested JimDenton. "He'll be out of the wind there, and we can give him a drink ofthe hot tea we brought along."
Some hot tea, mixed with milk, had been put in a thermos bottle andtaken with the party to have ready for Nan and Bert, should the Bobbseytwins be found. Now this hot drink would do for poor old Jim Bimby.
Some of the men managed to light lanterns they carried, though it washard work on account of the wind and snow, and the whole party,including the rescued man, went to the side of the big pine tree, whichkept off some of the storm.
"There! I feel better," said Old Jim, as he swallowed the warm drink.
"And now can you tell us whether or not you saw my two children, Nan andBert--the Bobbsey twins?" again asked their father anxiously.
Old Jim shook his head.
"No," he answered. "I didn't see any children. I came straight from mycabin, over the hill trail, to go to the village to get some food. Thecupboard is almost bare at my house. I didn't think it was goin' tostorm, and I was all taken aback when it did. I kept on, but I must havelost my way."
"Guess you did," said Mr. Peterson. "And you're not likely to get backon it in this storm, either."
"What!" cried Old Jim. "You mean to say I can't keep on to the store andtake some food back to my wife?"
"Not in this storm!" said Tom Case. "You're miles from the store now,and more miles from your cabin. You'd best come to Cedar Camp with us,and in the morning, when the storm is over, you can go on again. Yourwife has enough food to last until morning, hasn't she?"
"Yes, I guess so," answered Mr. Bimby.
"But what has become of Bert and Nan?" asked Mr. Bobbsey.
"Now look here, Mr. Bobbsey," said Tom Case, "don't go to worrying aboutthose children. They're all right. Bert and Nan are smart, and when theysaw this storm coming on they went to some shelter, you can depend onthat. They'd know better than to try to make their way back to camp."
"Well, perhaps they would," admitted the father of the missing twins."And perhaps, when we get back to camp, we'll find them there. Somelogger or hunter may have found them and taken them to our cabin."
"Of course," agreed Mr. Peterson.
By this time "Old Jim," as he was called, to distinguish him from JimDenton, the lumber foreman, was feeling much better. He was still weak,and he leaned on the arm of one of the lumbermen as they turned back.The storm was still fierce, and it was now night, but lanterns gavelight enough to see the way through the forest.
Had it not been that the lumber and Christmas tree men knew their waythrough the woods, the party might never have reached Cedar Camp. As itwas they lost the trail once, and had hard work to find it again. Butfinally they plunged through several drifts of snow that had formed, andbroke out into the clearing around the sawmill.
"Did you find them?" cried Mrs. Bobbsey, when her husband came to thecabin, knocking the snow off his feet.
"No," he answered, and he tried to make his voice as cheerful aspossible. "We didn't find them, but they're all right. They wereprobably taken in by some hunter or logger."
Even as he said this Mr. Bobbsey was disappointed that Bert and Nan hadnot been brought back to camp during his absence, for he had half hopedthat he would find them there on his own return.
"Oh, I do hope they're all right!" said Mrs. Bobbsey.
"Of course they are!" her husband told her. "They'll be here in themorning."
"With chestnuts?" asked Flossie, who, with Freddie, had been awakenedfrom an early evening sleep by the return of their father.
"Yes, they'll bring chestnuts," replied Mr. Bobbsey, trying to smile,though it was hard work, for he was really very much worried, as was hiswife.
However, they did not let Flossie and Freddie know this. And as Mr.Bobbsey ate the warm supper which Mrs. Baxter set out for him, he toldabout the finding of Mr. Bimby, who had been taken to the cabin of TomCase, there to spend the night.
"Can we see him?" cried Flossie, who did not seem any the worse forhaving fallen into the water.
"Maybe he can tell us a story about a real bear," added Freddie, for hehad been rather disappointed, since coming to Cedar Camp, because no onecould tell him where to find a bear.
"Maybe he can," said his father. "You shall see Old Jim, as the boyscall him, in the morning."
Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey did not pass a very happy night. They were muchworried about the missing Nan and Bert, and though he tried to sleep,after Flossie and Freddie had gone to Slumberland, Mr. Bobbsey found ithard work. So did his wife.
More than once during the night, as they awakened after fitful naps andheard the wind howling around the cabin and the snow rattling againstthe windows, one or the other would say:
"Oh, I hope Bert and Nan are all right!"
And the other would say:
"I hope so!"
Morning came at last, but it was not such a morning as all in Cedar Camphad hoped for. They had expected the storm to be over, so that asearching party could again set out to find Bert and Nan.
But instead of the storm being over, it was even worse than the nightbefore. A regular blizzard had set in, the snow coming out of the northon the wings of a cold wind. Great drifts were piled high here and therethrough the camp clearing, and when Freddie and Flossie looked from thewindow they could hardly see the sawmill.
"Oh, oh!" squealed Freddie. "Look, Flossie! Just look!"
"We're snowed in!" cried Flossie. "Oh, what fun we'll have!"
"It's just like Snow Lodge!" added Freddie, remembering a time spentthere, when several adventurous happenings had taken place.
"Yes, I'm afraid we are snowed in," said Mr. Bobbsey, with an anxiouslook out of the window. "But I hope it will not last long. Well, herecome Tom Case and Old Jim. I must see what they want," and he went tothe door to let them in.
Meanwhile the snow came down steadily, and as Flossie had said, thatpart of the Bobbsey family at Cedar Camp was fairly snowed in. As forthe other members of the family, Bert and Nan, we must now try to findout what had happened to them.