hospitable way. They ate their meal
in the front room before the fire, and now that she was warmed and was
no longer hungry, Edna began to be interested in her surroundings. It
was a plainly furnished room, a faded carpet on the floor, an
old-fashioned sofa against one wall, a claw-footed mahogany table
against the other, a bookcase between the windows. One or two engravings
hung on the wall and a dingy portrait in an old frame. The chairs
matched the sofa, one being a comfortable rocker with cover of
haircloth.

After they had washed the supper dishes, Nettie made ready for the night
by putting more coal on the fires and carefully barring the shutters and
doors below. Then with a small lamp in her hand she escorted her guest
to the upstairs room. It was rather chilly and was also plainly
furnished, though the old-fashioned four-poster bed was made up neatly,
and the high bureau showed a clean cover. The wind howled and whistled
around the house, the sharp snow crystals clicked against the panes, but
as Edna crept under the covers she could feel only thankful that she had
this shelter and was soon asleep with Nettie beside her already in the
land of Dreams.

CHAPTER VI

COUSIN BEN TO THE RESCUE

The next morning when Edna opened her eyes she saw a white world. Trees,
fences, roofs, were covered with snow. It was banked up in great drifts
along the road. The path to the gate was so deeply snowed under that it
was an impossibility to think of getting from the house. At the back it
was no better. The two little girls looked rather sober.

"I wonder if mother can get home to-day," was the first thought in
Nettie's mind, and, "I wonder if I can get home to my mother," was that
in Edna's.

It seemed rather forlorn to think of facing the day without some older
person, but Nettie bravely went to work to do her best. First she went
down into the cellar for coal which she lugged up to put on the two
fires. Edna came down to find her busily taking up the ashes.

"Oh, how do you know what to do to make the fires burn?" she asked.

"Oh, I know, for mother has told me, and I often do this for her. The
kitchen fire is easy enough but it is hard to lift the coal bucket up
high enough to get the coal into the other stove."

"I can help," said Edna. So together they managed.

"Now, I must see what there is for breakfast," said Nettie. "I think
there are two eggs, and the hens must have laid more, but I can't get
out