“I’m thinking that we’d better start away hunting again very early in the morning,” he said.  “The big snows are bound to come soon.  That first little one was only a taste of what we’re going to get.”

They were off again at daybreak, and this time Paul went with them.  The party turned to the southward, in order to avoid the chance of meeting Shawnees or Miamis, and soon had the luck to run into a small buffalo herd.  They killed only what they could carry, and then returned with it toward the island.  Henry continually watched the skies as they traveled, and he uttered an exclamation of relief when they landed.  The heavens all the while had been leaden and somber, and there was no wind stirring.

“See,” he said, “the great snow comes!”

The sullen skies opened, and big white flakes dropped down as they hurried with their fresh supplies to the cabin.

CHAPTER XVI

NOEL

The snow fell three days and nights without ceasing, and they rejoiced greatly over their foresight in preparing so well for it, because it was a big snow, a very big snow.  “It ain’t jest snowin’,” said Shif’less Sol; “the bottom o’ the sky hez dropped out, an’ all the snow’s tumblin’ down.”

The great flakes never ceased for a moment to fall.  The sun did not get a single chance to shine, and as fast as one cloud was emptied, another, huge and black, was drawn in its place across the sky.  The island ceased to be an island, because the snow heaped up on the frozen surface of the lake, and it was impossible to tell where land ended and water began.  The boughs of the trees bent and cracked beneath their load, and some fell to the ground.  At times the sound of snapping boughs was like stray rifle shots.

Paul watched the snow deepen before their door.  First an inch, then two, then four, then six, and on and on.  The roof began to strain and creak ominously beneath the great weight.  All rushed forth at once into the storm, and with poles and their rude shovels they thrust the great mass of accumulated snow from the roof.  This task they repeated at intervals throughout the three days, but they had little else to do, except cook, eat, and sleep.  They had recourse again to the chessmen and Paul’s stories, and they reverted often to their friends and relatives at Wareville.

“At any rate,” said Henry, “Kentucky is safe so long as this great snow lasts.  What holds us holds the Shawnees and the Miamis, too; they can’t go south through it.”

“That’s so,” said Paul, with intense satisfaction, as he ran over all the chances of success or failure in their great task.

At the end of the third day the snow ceased.  It lay three feet deep on the level, and deeper in the hollows and gullies.  Then all the clouds floated away, the sun came out, and the whole world was a dazzling globe of white, so intense that it hurt Paul’s eyes.