The Bobbsey Twins at Cedar Camp Part 22

"I got one! I got one!" excitedly cried Bert, as he saw one of the bunnies lying on the snow. The other had scampered off.

"Yes, you did get one, child!" said Mrs. Bimby, as she ran out into the storm and came back with the game. "Now we shan't starve. I'll make a potpie."

This she did, stewing the rabbit with some dumplings she made from a little flour she had left in the bottom of the barrel. Bert and Nan thought nothing had ever tasted so good as that rabbit potpie.

"You'll be quite a hunter when you grow up," said Mrs. Bimby, when the meal was over. "You shot straight and true, Bert!"

"But you helped me," said the Bobbsey boy. "I couldn't have aimed the gun straight if you hadn't helped me."

"But I saw the rabbits, didn't I?" asked Nan.

"Yes, dearie, you surely did," said the kind old woman. "Now we shan't starve for a couple of days, anyhow."

"And then I can shoot more rabbits, or maybe some squirrels," Bert declared.

"I hope by that time the storm'll be over," remarked Mrs. Bimby, "and that my Jim will come back."

"Will he take us home, or bring our father here?" Nan questioned.

"I guess so," Mrs. Bimby answered.

But as the snow kept up all the remainder of that day, and as it was still storming hard when night came, there did not seem much chance of the two older Bobbsey twins being rescued.

Again Bert and Nan spent the night in the little rooms of the cabin, but they slept better this time, Nan not even awakening for a drink of water. And in the morning Bert looked from a window and cried:

"Hurray! The snow's stopping! I'm going to start out and go back to camp!"

"You are?" asked Nan. "Are you going to take me?"

"No," said Bert. "You'd better stay here. I'll go to camp and send daddy back in a sled for you. He can hitch a horse to one of the lumber sleds now that the snow is stopping, and he can ride you home. And if I find your husband I'll send him back with a lot of things to eat," he told Mrs. Bimby.

"I wish you would, dearie," said the old woman. "But are you really going to start out, Bert?"

"Yes'm! My father and mother will be worried about us. I can get to camp now, I'm sure, as the storm is almost over."

Mrs. Bimby, who, though not very wise, was kind, made him take a little lunch with him, packing up some cold boiled chestnuts and part of the cold rabbit meat. It was all there was.

"But maybe I'll get to camp before I have to eat," said Bert. "And I'll send back help to you."

So Bert started out, Mrs. Bimby showing him the direction he was to take. It was still snowing a little, but he hoped it would soon stop.

[Ill.u.s.tration: OLD JIM DELIGHTED THE TWINS.]

CHAPTER XVII--TRYING AGAIN

Though Flossie and Freddie had what they called "good times" in the log cabin at Cedar Camp, and though Old Jim played with them, making boats and dolls of wood, still the small Bobbsey twins wished for the time to come when they might go out of doors. They also began to wish for the return of Bert and Nan.

"When _will_ they come, Mother?" Flossie asked over and over again.

"And bring us chestnuts!" teased Freddie.

"Oh, they'll come soon now," Mrs. Bobbsey said, as she looked out of the window at the flakes of snow, still falling, and listened to the whistle of the cold wind around the cabin.

And in her heart how very much Mrs. Bobbsey wished that Bert and Nan would come back soon! Mr. Bobbsey wished the same thing, and the only comfort the father and mother had in those worrisome days was the thought that their older twins _must_ have found shelter somewhere in the woods.

Old Jim declared that this was so, as, likewise, did Tom Case and Jim Denton. But it was still storming too much for another searching party to set out and look for Nan and Bert. Those who searched might themselves become lost in the blizzard. For that is what the storm now was--a regular blizzard.

Mr. Bobbsey could do nothing toward searching for the lost shipment of Christmas trees. The lumbermen could not work at cutting down trees, floating or sledding them to the mill or carting them to the railroad.

Even the sawmill was shut down, and all there was to do was to wait.

Flossie and Freddie were not used to staying in the house so long at a time. They wanted to go out and play even if there was snow, but their mother would not let them in such an unusual storm.

"It's like when we were at Snow Lodge," sighed Flossie, as she stood with her little nose pressed flat against the window, thereby making her face cold.

"We could go out a little there," sighed Freddie.

"I think you children are very lucky," said their mother. "You have a warm place to stay. Think of poor Nan and Bert. They may----"

She stopped suddenly. She dared not think of what her older son and daughter might be suffering. She glanced quickly at Flossie and Freddie.

She was afraid lest she should make them worry, too.

But, fortunately, Flossie and Freddie were not that sort. They did not believe in worrying, unless it was over not having fun enough. However, the log cabin was of good size, and with Old Jim to come over now and then to amuse them with cutting out wooden toys, the two Bobbsey twins did not have such a sad time as might be imagined.

To-day, however, when the storm had kept up so long, and when they had not had a chance to go out, they felt rather lonesome and as if they wanted to "do something." So, presently, when Flossie had grown tired of pressing her nose against the gla.s.s, making it cold, and then holding it on Freddie's cheek to hear him exclaim in surprise, the little girl wandered about looking for something to do. Freddie joined her, and while their mother was in another room, talking to Mr. Bobbsey, and saying he ought, soon, to make another trip and search for Bert and Nan, Flossie and Freddie went up in the top story of the log cabin.

The log cabin was the largest in that part of the woods, and was higher than most, so that in addition to the bedrooms on the second floor, there was, above them, an open attic, reached by a short flight of steps, and in it were stored all sorts of odds and ends.

"Maybe we can find something here to play with," suggested Flossie.

"Maybe," agreed Freddie.

They rummaged around in the half-dark place, back in corners where the roof came down slanting and making little "cubby-holes," and it was after a glance into one of these places that Flossie drew back and whispered to Freddie:

"There's a bear in here!"

"A bear! Where?" and Freddie moved over closer to Flossie and looked where she pointed.

"There," said the little girl, and, glancing along the line of her outstretched finger, Freddie saw a big, furry heap in a dark corner. "I touched it first with my foot," said Flossie, "and it was soft, just like the bear I touched that the Italian had once, leading around by a string in his nose. And then I put out my hand and I felt his fur!"

"Oh!" exclaimed Freddie. "Did he--did he bite you?" He had been looking for something to play with on the other side of the attic, and, therefore, had not seen all that Flossie had.

"Course he didn't bite me!" the little girl answered. "You didn't hear me holler, did you?"

"No," said Freddie, "I didn't. I'm going to touch him!"