Part 16 (1/2)
”Yes! What are you doing here?” chorused the rest.
”Lemme get near the fire?” begged Hen, in a choking, sobbing voice. ”I'm nearly frozen.”
”Don't shut that door yet,” called Dan, moving forward. ”We didn't know it was snowing. I want to see if it's a big snow.”
”You bet it is,” chattered Hen. ”It's a blizzard, and I don't care how soon that door is shut.”
”You're not giving orders here, remember,” retorted Dan crisply, as he went to the open doorway. The others, too, crowded to the doorway. It certainly was a big snow. The flakes were of the largest size, and coming down thickly to the tune of a moaning wind.
”It wasn't snowing at dark, and now there are at least four inches,”
cried Greg.
”Five inches,” hazarded Dave.
”How many, d.i.c.k?”
”Say, are you fellows going to freeze me to death?” called Hen Dutcher, his teeth chattering. He was facing the fire, roasting in front, but with chills running down his spine.
”Close the door, fellows. We can't see much to-night at any rate, and we'll see the whole storm in the morning,” proposed d.i.c.k. ”We don't want to see Hen freeze to death.”
”n.o.body invited him here!”
d.i.c.k turned, wondering who had made that remark, but he could not make up his mind.
”Take off your coat, Hen, and have some hot coffee. We have some left, and it will warm you,” d.i.c.k went on, after the door had been closed and barred.
”I'll have supper and the whole thing,” declared Hen promptly. ”Don't you fellows expect to feed your visitors?”
”We'll feed you,” d.i.c.k agreed, ”though we had made no plans for visitors and didn't expect any.”
Hen had some difficulty in getting off his coat.
”Are you as stiff as that?” asked Prescott, going to the other fellow's a.s.sistance.
”I tell you, I'm just about frozen to death,” moaned Hen. ”My, how cold it came on, just after dark! The wind began to howl, and I could feel the ice forming on my chin every time I breathed. I thought sure I was going to freeze to death in the woods. I'd about given up when I saw your lights.”
”How long has it been snowing?” Dave asked.
”Don't you fellows know?” Hen demanded.
”No; we were in here, getting supper and then eating it. We didn't know that it had even started to snow.”
”It wasn't snowing at dark, but it began some time after,” replied Hen, as he took the chair d.i.c.k offered and sank into it before the warming glow.
”Don't get too close to the fire until you thaw out a bit,” advised d.i.c.k. ”If you do you'll feel it more.”
”I feel it now,” groaned Hen, beginning to moan. ”My hands are frozen stiff.”
They weren't really frozen, though the hands had been badly nipped. It was twenty minutes before Hen Dutcher cared to move over to the table.
Even then he complained severely of the ”stinging” in his hands, feet and chin.