"No," said her mother, "we are not very cold; we are well wrapped up in buffalo robes, and the bottom of the sleigh is filled with straw." Rodolphus peeped out from beneath the mass of coverings with which he was enveloped, unharmed, but yet pale with anxiety and terror, though now overjoyed at seeing Ellen.
"But I don't see now what we are to do, to get home," said Ellen. "There is only one pair of snow-shoes, and there are three of us to go."
"We must go one at a time, then," said Rodolphus.
"But when one has gone, how can we get the snow-shoes back?" asked Ellen.
"I don't know, I am sure," said Mrs. Linn. "I don't know what we shall do."
"Why did not father come with you?" asked Ellen, despondingly.
"He was gone away," said her mother. "We waited for him a long time, but he did not come, and so Hugh said that he would leave his team in the village for the night, and come with me. But he went away some time ago, and I don't know what can have become of him."
While this consultation had been going on, the storm had continued to rage around them in all its fury. The track behind the sleigh had been wholly obliterated, the horse was half-buried, and the snow was fast rising all around the sleigh and threatening before long to overwhelm the party entirely. They were entirely at a loss to know what to do. So they paused a moment in their perplexity, and during the pause, Ellen thought that she heard another cry.
"Hark!" said she.
They all listened as well as the howling of the wind around them would allow them to listen. It was certainly a distant shout that they heard.