Turning their backs upon the gloomy estate, they again braved the penetrating wind. Soon Louise lost her footing and fell. She remained in a dispirited little heap until Penny pulled her off the ice.
“Let’s keep going, Lou,” she urged. “It won’t be long now.”
Louise allowed Penny to pull her along. They rounded a curve in the road, and there, miraculously, the lighted cabin rose before them.
“At last!” exulted Louise. “The Promised Land!”
Staggering up a shoveled path, they pounded on the cabin door. An old man, who held a kerosene lamp, responded promptly.
“Come in, come in!” he invited heartily. “Why, you look half frozen.”
“Looks aren’t deceitful either,” Penny laughed shakily.
As the girls went into the warm room a little whirlpool of wind and snow danced ahead of them. Quickly the old man closed the door. He made places for Penny and Louise at the stove and tossed in a heavy stick of wood.
“Bad night to be out,” he commented cheerfully.
Penny agreed that it was. “We’re lost,” she volunteered, stripping off her wet mittens. “At least we can’t find the airplane listening post.”