Nan Sherwoods Winter Holidays | Page 7

of telegraph and
telephone wires. No aid for the snow-bound train and passengers could
be obtained.
Before this, however, the porter had insisted upon making up the girls'
berths and, like most of the other passengers in the Pullman, Nan and
Bess were asleep. While the passengers slept the snow continued to sift
down, building the drifts higher and higher, and causing the train-crew
increasing worriment of mind.
The locomotive could no longer pierce the drifts. The train had been
too heavy for her from the first. Fuel supply had been renewed at the
Junction, as well as water; but the coal was now needed to keep up
steam for the cars--and it would not last long for that purpose.
If the storm continued until morning without change, it might be
several days before the road could be opened from either end of the
division. Food and fuel would be very hard to obtain in this waste of
snow, and so far from human habitation.
The two conductors and the engineer spent most of the night discussing
ways and means. Meanwhile the snow continued to fall and the
passengers, for the most part, rested in ignorance of the peril that
threatened.
CHAPTER IV
CAST AWAY IN THE SNOW
It was Bess who came back from the ladies' room on the Pullman and
startled Nan Sherwood by shaking her by the shoulder as she lay in the
upper berth, demanding:
"Have you any idea what time it is, Nan? Say! have you?"

"No-o--ouch!" yawned her chum. "Goodness! That was my elbow.
There's not much room on these shelves, is there?"
"Do you hear me?" shrilled Bess. "What time do you suppose it is?"
"Oh, dear me! Is that a conundrum?" asked Nan, with but faint interest.
"Wake up!" and Bess pinched her. "I never knew you so stupid before.
See my watch, Nan," and she held the small gold time-piece she had
owned since her last birthday, so that her chum could see its face.
"A quarter to eight," read Nan from the dial. "Well! that's not so late. I
know we're allowed to remain in the car till eight. I'll hurry. But, oh!
isn't it dark outside?"
"Now, you're showing a little common sense," snapped Bess. "But do
you see that my watch has stopped?"
"Oh! so it has," agreed Nan. "But, then, honey, you're always letting it
run down."
"I know," said Bess, impatiently. "And at first I thought it must have
stopped last evening at a quarter to eight. When I woke up just now it
was just as dark as it was yesterday morning at six. But I took a peep at
the porter's clock and what do you think?"
"I'll shave you for nothing and give you a drink," laughed Nan, quoting
the old catch-line.
Bess was too excited to notice her chum's fun. She said, dramatically:
"The porter's clock says half-past nine and half the berths are put up
again at the other end of the car!"
"Mercy!" gasped Nan, and swung her feet over the edge of the berth.
"Oh!" she squealed the next moment.
"What's the matter now?" demanded her chum.

"Oh! I feel like a poor soldier who's having his legs cut off. My! isn't
the edge of this berth sharp?"
"But what do you know about its being half-past nine?" demanded
Bess.
"And the train is standing still," said Nan. "Do you suppose we can be
at Tillbury?"
"Goodness! we ought to be," said Bess. "But it is so dark."
"And Papa Sherwood would be down in the yards looking for me
before this time, I know."
"Well! what do you think it means?" demanded her chum. "And b-r-r-r!
it's cold. There isn't half enough steam on in this car."
Nan was scrambling into her outer garments. "I'll see about this in a
minute, Bess," she said, chuckling. "Maybe the sun's forgotten to rise."
Bess had managed to draw aside the curtain of the big window. She
uttered a muffled scream.
"Oh, Nan! It's sno-ow!"
"What? Still snowing?" asked her chum.
"No. It's all banked up against the pane. I can't see out at all."
"Goodness--gracious--me!" ejaculated Nan. "Do you suppose we're
snowed in?"
That was just exactly what it meant. The porter, his eyes rolling, told
them all about it. The train had stood just here, "in the middle of a
snow-bank," since midnight. It was still snowing. And the train was
covered in completely with the soft and clinging mantle.
At first the two chums bound for Tillbury were only excited and
pleased by the novel situation. The porter arranged their seats for them

and Bess proudly produced the box of lunch she had bought at Freeling,
and of which they had eaten very little.
"Tell me how smart I am, Nan