The Bobbsey Twins at Cedar Camp Part 20

"Have you any games we could play?" asked Nan.

She and her brother were in the habit of playing simple games at home before going to bed, and it seemed natural to do it now. After the first shock of feeling that they were lost in the snow storm had pa.s.sed, the Bobbsey twins were quite content. They felt that their father and mother must realize that they were safe.

"Games, dearie?" asked Mrs. Bimby. "Well, seems to me there's some dominoes 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 'em out."

She rummaged through an old chest and brought to light a box of battered dominoes. But as several were missing it was hard to play a good game with them. As for the checkers, the board was there but the pieces, or men, were not to be found.

"But you can take kernels of corn," said Mrs. Bimby. "I've often seen my Jim do that."

"Checker men have to be of different color," said Nan, "and corn is all one color, isn't it?"

"There are red ears," suggested Bert. "Don't you remember we saw some when we were in the country?"

"Oh, yes!" exclaimed Nan.

"That's what I was going to say," remarked Mrs. Bimby. "I can give you some yellow kernels and some red ones, and you can play checkers if you like."

This suited Nan and Bert, and though it was hard to make "kings" by placing one grain of corn on top of another, they managed to go on with the game, using pins to fasten two red or two yellow kernels one on top of 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 of checkers, and Bert and Nan got along very well in this way. Mrs. Bimby kept stoking the fire, putting on stick after stick of wood as it burned away, 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 checker game 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't come to-night, that's sure, and I don't believe any of your folks will come 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'm glad I've got covers enough for two extra beds."

There were three rooms in the second story of the log cabin. Two of the rooms were small, each one containing a little single cot. The other room was larger, and had a bed in it. Mrs. Bimby slept there, and she gave Bert and Nan each one of the smaller rooms. There was a window in each of the bedrooms, and being above the warm downstairs room, where a hot fire had been blazing all evening, the sleeping chambers were more comfortable than one would have supposed.

Bert and Nan were so sleepy that they did not lie awake long after getting to bed. As there were no pajamas for Bert and no night-gown for Nan, the children slept in their underclothes, taking off only their shoes 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 was awakened 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 he realized that she was either half awake, and did not remember where she was, or else she was talking in her sleep. He raised up on his elbow and listened. Again Nan said:

"I want a drink!"

Bert knew how hard it was to try to go to sleep when thirsty, so he got up and, having noticed on coming to bed the evening before a pail of water 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 drink her 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 hear the rattle of snow against the gla.s.s.

"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 soundly until morning, when Mrs. Bimby called him and Nan to get up.

"Come, dearies," said the kind old woman. "We'll have breakfast, such as it is."

For a few moments after awakening Bert and Nan could not quite remember where they were. Bert afterward said that he hoped there would be hot buckwheat cakes for breakfast, with maple syrup, such as they had had in the cabin where Mrs. Baxter acted as cook. But there was no such appetizing smell as that of pancakes coming up from Mrs. Bimby's kitchen.

"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 and b.u.t.ter. "If my Jim had come back we'd have had enough to eat. But as it is, 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 been shipwrecked. Were you ever shipwrecked, Mrs. Bimby?" Nan asked, as cheerfully as she could.

"No, dearie, but I've had the rheumatiz, and I reckon that's 'most as bad. But let's eat what we've got and we'll hope for more before the day is over."

"It's still snowing, isn't it?" remarked Nan, as she hungrily ate some of 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 be hip-deep by night, and we'll be completely snowed in. I declare, I don't know what we'll do!"

"Maybe it'll stop," suggested Bert, trying to look on the bright side.

"Or maybe it won't be so bad but what we can go out," added Nan. "And if we get back to camp we can send you something to eat by one of the men in a sleigh, Mrs. Bimby."

"I wouldn't let you go out in this storm--not for anything!" declared the kind old woman. "The only safe place is this cabin when it snows this way. You can't starve to death as quickly as you can freeze to death, 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 twins played more checker games with grains of corn, and when almost all there was in the cupboard had been eaten, Mrs. Bimby opened the doors, looked at the bare shelves and said:

"I declare, I don't know what we're going to do! Almost everything is gone!"

The cupboard, indeed, was nearly bare.

For some reason or other, Bert's eyes rested on the gun on the wall over the mantel.

"Is that gun loaded, Mrs. Bimby?" he asked.

"Yes, I reckon 'tis," she answered. "Jim always keeps it loaded, for he goes hunting sometimes."

"What after?" asked Bert.