CHAPTER XV--A BARE CUPBOARD
Having finished drinking the weak tea which Mrs. Bimby brewed for them,eating with it some of the lunch they had brought along, Bert and Nansat in the lonely cabin in the woods wondering what would happen next.There was no other cabin or house near them, and as they heard the windhowl down the chimney and moan around the corners, and heard the rattleof hard snow against the window, the older Bobbsey twins were glad theyhad found this shelter.
"Do you think we'll be able to start back soon, Mrs. Bimby?" asked Nan,as she helped the old woman clear the tea things off the table.
"Back where, dearie?"
"Back to our camp."
"Oh, not to-night, surely," said Mrs. Bimby. "You won't dare venture outin this storm. It's getting worse, and black night is coming on. Youjust stay here with me. I can make up beds for you, and I'll be glad tohave you, since my Jim isn't coming back, I reckon."
"What do you think has become of him?" asked Bert, who was interested inlooking at a gun that hung over the mantel.
"Well, I reckon he got to the village, but found the storm so bad hedidn't dare to start back," answered Mrs. Bimby.
Of course she did not know what had happened to Old Jim any more thanJim knew that the older Bobbsey twins were in his own cabin.
"But Jim'll be here in the morning," said his wife. "And I do hope he'llbring in something to eat. If he doesn't----"
She did not finish what she started to say, and Nan asked:
"Will you starve, Mrs. Bimby?"
"Well, not exactly _starve_, for I s'pose a body could keep alive on teaand condensed milk for a while. But we'll be pretty hungry. There'll bethree to feed instead of just one," the old woman went on.
"We've some food left," said Bert. "And we can cook our chestnuts. Wegot quite a few before the storm came."
"Bless your hearts, dearies!" exclaimed Mrs. Bimby. "You may be able toeat chestnuts, but _my_ old teeth are too poor for that. But I dare saywe'll get along somehow, even if the cupboard is almost bare. Don't youwant to go to bed?"
"Oh, it's too early," objected Bert.
"Have you any games we could play?" asked Nan.
She and her brother were in the habit of playing simple games at homebefore going to bed, and it seemed natural to do it now. After the firstshock of feeling that they were lost in the snow storm had passed, theBobbsey twins were quite content. They felt that their father and mothermust realize that they were safe.
"Games, dearie?" asked Mrs. Bimby. "Well, seems to me there's somedominoes around somewhere, and I did see a checker board the other day.Jim used to play 'em when the loggers came in. I'll see if I can dig 'emout."
She rummaged through an old chest and brought to light a box of battereddominoes. But as several were missing it was hard to play a good gamewith them. As for the checkers, the board was there but the pieces, ormen, were not to be found.
"But you can take kernels of corn," said Mrs. Bimby. "I've often seen myJim do that."
"Checker men have to be of different color," said Nan, "and corn is allone color, isn't it?"
"There are red ears," suggested Bert. "Don't you remember we saw somewhen we were in the country?"
"Oh, yes!" exclaimed Nan.
"That's what I was going to say," remarked Mrs. Bimby. "I can give yousome yellow kernels and some red ones, and you can play checkers if youlike."
This suited Nan and Bert, and though it was hard to make "kings" byplacing one grain of corn on top of another, they managed to go on withthe game, using pins to fasten two red or two yellow kernels one on topof the other when the king row was reached.
Grains of corn or some other cereal, or perhaps colored stones, were,very likely, the first sort of "men" used in the ancient game ofcheckers, and Bert and Nan got along very well in this way. Mrs. Bimbykept stoking the fire, putting on stick after stick of wood as it burnedaway, and the cabin was kept warm and cozy.
Outside the storm raged, the wind blew, and the snow came pelting down.But at times the older Bobbsey twins were so interested in their checkergame that they hardly heard the sounds outside the log cabin.
At last Mrs. Bimby, with a look at the clock, said:
"It's after nine, dearies; hadn't you better go to bed? My Jim won'tcome to-night, that's sure, and I don't believe any of your folks willcome for you."
"They don't know where we are," said Nan.
"No more they do, dearie. Well, I'll show you where you're to sleep. I'mglad I've got covers enough for two extra beds."
There were three rooms in the second story of the log cabin. Two of therooms were small, each one containing a little single cot. The otherroom was larger, and had a bed in it. Mrs. Bimby slept there, and shegave Bert and Nan each one of the smaller rooms. There was a window ineach of the bedrooms, and being above the warm downstairs room, where ahot fire had been blazing all evening, the sleeping chambers were morecomfortable than one would have supposed.
Bert and Nan were so sleepy that they did not lie awake long aftergetting to bed. As there were no pajamas for Bert and no night-gown forNan, the children slept in their underclothes, taking off only theirshoes and outer garments.
In spite of the fact that he fell asleep soon after going to bed,because he was tired from the day's tramp after chestnuts, Bert wasawakened in the middle of the night by hearing Nan call:
"Mother, please give me a drink!"
It was a request Bert had often heard his sister make before, and now herealized that she was either half awake, and did not remember where shewas, or else she was talking in her sleep. He raised up on his elbow andlistened. Again Nan said:
"I want a drink!"
Bert knew how hard it was to try to go to sleep when thirsty, so he gotup and, having noticed on coming to bed the evening before a pail ofwater on a chair in the upper hall, he brought Nan a dipper full. Mrs.Bimby had left a lantern burning, so it was not dark in the cabin.
"Oh, Bert! I dreamed I was back home," said Nan, as she took the drinkher brother handed her. "Thank you!"
"Welcome," he said, struggling to keep his sleepy eyes open.
"Is it still snowing?" asked Nan.
"Hard," answered Bert, looking out of the window, though, truth to tell,he could see nothing, it was so pitch dark outside. But he could hearthe rattle of snow against the glass.
"I hope it stops by morning," sighed Nan.
"So do I--long enough for us to get back to camp, anyhow," added Bert.
He got himself a drink and went back to bed, there to sleep soundlyuntil morning, when Mrs. Bimby called him and Nan to get up.
"Come, dearies," said the kind old woman. "We'll have breakfast, such asit is."
For a few moments after awakening Bert and Nan could not quite rememberwhere they were. Bert afterward said that he hoped there would be hotbuckwheat cakes for breakfast, with maple syrup, such as they had had inthe cabin where Mrs. Baxter acted as cook. But there was no suchappetizing smell as that of pancakes coming up from Mrs. Bimby'skitchen.
"I'm sorry I haven't any more to offer you," she said to the children,as she set before them some more weak tea and a few pieces of bread andbutter. "If my Jim had come back we'd have had enough to eat. But as itis, I'm afraid you'll go hungry soon."
"We'll eat what's left of our lunch," said Bert.
"And cook some chestnuts," added Nan. "We'll pretend we've beenshipwrecked. Were you ever shipwrecked, Mrs. Bimby?" Nan asked, ascheerfully as she could.
"No, dearie, but I've had the rheumatiz, and I reckon that's 'most asbad. But let's eat what we've got and we'll hope for more before the dayis over."
"It's still snowing, isn't it?" remarked Nan, as she hungrily ate someof the dry food and swallowed some of the weak, but warm, tea.
"Yes, and it's likely to keep up all day," said Mrs. Bimby. "It'll behip-deep by night, and we'll be completely snowed in. I declare, I don'tknow what we'll do!"
"Maybe it'll stop," suggested Bert, trying to look on the bright side.<
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"Or maybe it won't be so bad but what we can go out," added Nan. "And ifwe get back to camp we can send you something to eat by one of the menin a sleigh, Mrs. Bimby."
"I wouldn't let you go out in this storm--not for anything!" declaredthe kind old woman. "The only safe place is this cabin when it snowsthis way. You can't starve to death as quickly as you can freeze todeath, that's a comfort. And we've got enough for one more meal,anyhow."
But when noon came, after a long morning, during which the Bobbsey twinsplayed more checker games with grains of corn, and when almost all therewas in the cupboard had been eaten, Mrs. Bimby opened the doors, lookedat the bare shelves and said:
"I declare, I don't know what we're going to do! Almost everything isgone!"
The cupboard, indeed, was nearly bare.
For some reason or other, Bert's eyes rested on the gun on the wall overthe mantel.
"Is that gun loaded, Mrs. Bimby?" he asked.
"Yes, I reckon 'tis," she answered. "Jim always keeps it loaded, for hegoes hunting sometimes."
"What after?" asked Bert.
"Oh, squirrels and rabbits."
"That's what I'm going to do, then!" cried Bert. "If I could shoot somesquirrels or rabbits we'd have a potpie and we wouldn't be hungry. Willyou please get that gun down for me, Mrs. Bimby?"
She looked at Bert and smiled.
"You're pretty small to handle a gun," she said. "But maybe you couldfire it if I showed you how. I've shot it more 'n once, and I broughtdown a cawing crow last winter. Sometimes the rabbits come close up toour cabin here. Wait till I take a look."
She went to the window to peer out into the storm, and Nan did likewise,while Bert continued to gaze at the gun on the wall. It was a shotgun,not very heavy, and he felt certain he could aim it at a rabbit and pullthe trigger.
Mrs. Bimby shook her head as she turned away from her window.
"There's no game here," she said. "Guess we'll have to go without apotpie."
But Nan suddenly uttered an exclamation.
"Oh, I see one!" she cried. "I see a big rabbit! Two of 'em! Oh, Bert,it's a shame to shoot the bunnies, but we can't starve! Get the gun!"