"Bah!" exclaimed Lluella, interrupting, "What's a little snow?"

"Cautious Ruthie is usually right," said Madge Steele, frankly.
"Let's go back."

"But we've scarcely got anything in the bags yet!" wailed Jennie
Stone. "All this walk on these clumsy old snowshoes for nothing?"

"Well, we'll just go as far as that grove of small trees that we
found the other day, and no farther," said Helen, who naturally--
being hostess--had her "say" about it.

As yet there was no real sign of danger. At least, in the woods the
girls had no means of apprehending the approach of the shroud of
thick snow that was sweeping out of the northwest. They could not see
far about them through the aisles of the wood.

Laughing and joking, the jolly party reached the spot of which Helen
had spoken. They set to work there in good earnest to fill their bags
with the pungent new growth of the trees, whose bending branches were
easily within their reach.

"How this soft snow does clog the snow-shoes," complained Belle
Tingley, removing the racquettes to knock them free.

"But the flakes are smaller now," said Ruth. "See, girls! it's
coming faster and finer. I believe we shall have to hurry back, Helen."

"Ruth is right," added Madge Steele, who, as the oldest of the