He did not waken the sleepers.

The Innocent slumbered peacefully, with a smile on his good-humored, freckled face; the virgin Piney slept beside her frailer sisters as sweetly as though attended by celestial guardians; and Mr.Oakhurst, drawing his blanket over his shoulders, stroked his mustaches and waited for the dawn.

It came slowly in a whirling mist of snowflakes that dazzled and confused the eye.

What could be seen of the landscape appeared magically changed.

He looked over the valley, and summed up the present and future in two words--"snowed in!" A careful inventory of the provisions, which, fortunately for the party, had been stored within the hut and so escaped the felonious fingers of Uncle Billy, disclosed the fact that with care and prudence they might last ten days longer.