trenches be made
to the various barns.

In some places, around the lee of a building, the ground was bare of
snow, and in other places the drifts were fully fifteen feet high.

Russ, who had not gone out to shovel snow, was observed to be nailing
some light broad boards together in a peculiar way.

"What are you making?" Ruth asked him.

"Snowshoes for my camera," was his surprising answer.

"Snowshoes for your camera?"

"Yes, I want to get out and take some views, but I can't stand the thin
legs of the camera on the snow. They'd pierce through it. So I'm going
to put a broad board under each leg, and that will hold the machine up
as well as snowshoes hold me."

"What a clever idea!" she cried. "I'm going to watch you. What sort of
views do you expect to get?"

"Some showing the men digging us out. We can get up a film story and
call it 'Prisoners of the Snow,' or something like that."

"Fine!" cried Alice. "I'm coming out, too."

She and Ruth got their snowshoes, and by this time the men had a deep
trench up to the front door, so that it was not necessary for the girls
to go out by the way of the balcony. They were delighted with the
strange scene, and Russ obtained many fine pictures of the men laboring
in the snow.

It was hard work to tunnel and trench out to the barn where the animals
were, but finally it was done. They were found to be all right with two
exceptions. A horse had died from getting into the oat bin and eating
too much, and a cow was frozen, having gotten away from the rest, and
broken into a small outbuilding.

But the rest of the stock was in good condition, and, as Alice said,
they seemed almost human, neighing or lowing at the sight of the men.

"I believe they were actually lonesome," said Alice.

"Indeed, animals do get that way!" declared Mr. Macksey.

As the snow was so deep, no dramas could be filmed in it, so Mr. Pertell
and his players were enjoying enforced idleness. The time was spent,
however, in learning new parts, in readiness for the time when some of
the snow should have melted.

Many more paths, tunnels and trenches were made, but it was impossible
to go more than a short distance from Elk Lodge, even on snowshoes.
Later, when the snow had packed more, and a crust had been formed, it
was planned to take many pictures of various happenings in the great
piles of white crystals.

Three days after the storm saw little change in the appearance of the
country and la