a wind at the front door, they were
going to try the side door.

"Another thing I have learned to-day," said Mr. Peterkin, "is not to
have all the doors on one side of the house, because the storm blows
the snow against _all_ the doors."

Solomon John started up.

"Let us see if we are blocked up on the east side of the house!" he
exclaimed.

"Of what use," asked Mr. Peterkin, "since we have no door on the east
side?"

"We could cut one," said Solomon John.

"Yes, we could cut a door," exclaimed Agamemnon.

"But how can we tell whether there is any snow there?" asked Elizabeth
Eliza,--"for there is no window."

In fact, the east side of the Peterkins' house formed a blank wall.
The owner had originally planned a little block of semi-detached
houses. He had completed only one, very semi and very detached.

"It is not necessary to see," said Agamemnon, profoundly; "of course,
if the storm blows against this side of the house, the house itself
must keep the snow from the other side."

[Illustration]

"Yes," said Solomon John, "there must be a space clear of snow on the
east side of the house, and if we could open a way to that"--

"We could open a way to the butcher," said Mr. Peterkin, promptly.

Agamemnon went for his pickaxe. He had kept one in the house ever
since the adventure of the dumb-waiter.

"What part of the wall had we better attack?" asked Mr. Peterkin.

Mrs. Peterkin was alarmed.

"What will Mr. Mudge, the owner of the house, think of it?" she
exclaimed. "Have we a right to injure the wall of the house?"

"It is right to preserve ourselves from starving," said Mr. Peterkin.
"The drowning man must snatch at a straw!"

"It is better that he should find his house chopped a little when the
thaw comes," said Elizabeth Eliza, "than that he should find us lying
about the house, dead of hunger, upon the floor."

Mrs. Peterkin was partially convinced.

The little boys came in to warm their hands. They had not succeeded in
opening the side door, and were planning trying to open the door from
the wood-house to the garden.

[Illustration]

"That would be of no use," said Mrs. Peterkin, "the butcher cannot get
into the garden."

"But we might shovel off the snow," suggested one of the little boys,
"and dig down to some of last year's onions."

[Illustration]

Meanwhile, Mr. Peterkin, Agamemnon, and Solomon John had been
bringing together their carpenter's tools, and Elizabeth Eliza
pro