For more than an hour the storm raged, the snow falling so heavily that Steady was buried in it up to his knees, and the van up to the hubs of the wheels.
After it ceased to fall the sky continued to be dark and lowering, and to give promise of further avalanches, and beneath the somber heavens the immense plain spread out as far as eye could reach, one vast expanse of blinding whiteness.
Oh! the white robe of cruel winter, which is in truth the mourning of Nature, and of the unfortunate creatures that have no snug shelter! How saddening it is! How it chills the heart! It is so dreadful to think of poor wretches who have no warm hearth to sit beside, no roof to cover them, but must suffer the pangs that the merciless cold alone can inflict, and perhaps lie down to die with the unpitying snow as their winding-sheet!
The Tamby children, unfortunate though they certainly were, had at least the protection of their van, and might have been comfortable after a fashion had not their hearts been wrung with anxiety for their missing sister, who, for aught they knew, was exposed to the same storm, and for their faithful beasts cowering close to the van that afforded them but partial shelter from the cutting blast.
"Poor Nalla and Steady!" said Cæsar, as he closed the door, after being out to speak encouragingly to them, and to pat their heads. "If they were only no bigger than Vigilant they could come into the van with us, and we would help to keep each other warm."
"It is indeed too bad they have to be out in all this storm," murmured Nadine, her eyes filling with tears, "and I'm very much afraid it may make Nalla sick. He seems a good deal out of sorts already. Oh, Cæsar, what would we do if he were to die! We could never earn a living without him!"
Cæsar put his arm around his sister, and stroked her hair tenderly.
"Of course we could, dearie," he said with a cheery confidence, much more emphatic than he really felt. "We would not of course do quite so well at first without the dear old fellow, who is now the chief attraction of our entertainment, but we would put something else in his place. You might learn some new songs, and I some new tricks, and Abel might do an act with Vigilant, and so on."
Nadine brightened up at his encouraging words.
"That's the way to look at it," she responded. "How brave you are, my brother!" Then with a sigh that seemed to rend her heart, "But, oh!—if we only had our little Lydia back!"