d when they looked out
they could see the light of day and the whirling blizzard above their
heads.

"It's up to the roof," gasped Rod. "Great Scott, what a snow-storm!"

"Now for some fun!" cried the Indian youth. "Come on, Rod, if you want
to be in it."

He crawled through the window into the cavity he had made in the drift,
and Rod followed. Wabi waited, a mischievous smile on his face, and no
sooner had his companion joined him than he plunged his shovel deep into
the base of the drift. Half a dozen quick thrusts and there tumbled down
upon their heads a mass of light snow that for a few moments completely
buried them. The suddenness of it knocked Rod to his knees, where he
floundered, gasped and made a vain effort to yell. Struggling like a
fish he first kicked his feet free, and Wabi, who had thrust out his
head and shoulders, shrieked with laughter as he saw only Rod's boots
sticking out of the snow.

"You're going the wrong way, Rod!" he shouted. "Wow--wow!"

He seized his companion's legs and helped to drag him out, and then
stood shaking, the tears streaming down his face, and continued to laugh
until he leaned back in the drift, half exhausted. Rod was a curious and
ludicrous-looking object. His eyes were wide and blinking; the snow was
in his ears, his mouth, and in his floundering he had packed his coat
collar full of it. Slowly he recovered from his astonishment, saw Wabi
and Mukoki quivering with laughter, grinned--and then joined them in
their merriment.

It was not difficult now for the boys to force their way through the
drift and they were soon standing waist-deep in the snow twenty yards
from the cabin.

"The snow is only about four feet deep in the open," said Wabi. "But
look at that!"

He turned and gazed at the cabin, or rather at the small part of it
which still rose triumphant above the huge drift which had almost
completely buried it. Only a little of the roof, with the smoking
chimney rising out of it, was to be seen. Rod now turned in all
directions to survey the wild scene about him. There had come a brief
lull in the blizzard, and his vision extended beyond the lake and to the
hilltop. There was not a spot of black to meet his eyes; every rock was
hidden; the trees hung silent and lifeless under their heavy mantles and
even their trunks were beaten white with the clinging volleys of the
storm. There came to him then a thought of the wild things in this
seemingly uninhabitable des