of bringing home some game. He was gone two hours, returning at last empty-handed.
“And very lucky I was to get home at all,” he said as he came in, stamping the snow off his big boots. “I vow I have been walking in a circle for five miles: it was only Nicholas who ever got me here again.”
All night the wind screamed in the chimney and fairly rocked the walls of their little dwelling. The snow seemed twice as deep when they fought their way out to the stable to attend to the wants of Hulda. Her placid air was somewhat reassuring, although Hugh observed wisely:
“She really doesn’t know just how things are.”
The pail of milk that they carried back between them was even more comforting, for it was plain that with Hulda’s help they could not quite starve.
“We can get pretty hungry, though,” observed Hugh grimly as he saw Nicholas disposing of his share in three laps and then looking up to beg mutely for more.
There could be no thought now of going out to
