"Help! help!" she cried. "She's fallen down a precipice!"

"She's smothered in a snow-bank!" gasped Helen.

Heavy uttered another cry, but seemingly from a great way off. Ruth
scrambled back to Madge, and suddenly found her own feet slipping
over the brink of some steep descent. She cried out and clung to
Madge. Helen took hold of Madge's other hand, and they drew Ruth back
to safety.

"Look out!" commanded the older girl. "You'll be down in that hole,
too, Ruth."

"No, no! We must make some attempt to get her up. Jennie! Jennie!
where are you?" shrieked Ruth.

"Right under you. Girls! you want to be careful. I've slid down a
bank and am standing on what appears to be a narrow shelf along the
face of this bank, or hill. And the snow isn't drifted here. Come
down."

"Oh, I wouldn't dare!" cried Lluella.

"If the place will afford us any shelter from this awful wind, why
not?" demanded Helen. "We might try it."

"How deep are you down, Jennie?" asked Madge.

"Only a few feet. You couldn't ever haul me up, anyway," and the