stout girl laughed, hysterically. "You know how heavy I am."

"Let me try it," said Ruth, eagerly. "Here's where Jennie slid over.
Look out, below!"

"Oh, come on! you can't hurt me," declared the stout one, and in a
moment Ruth had slipped over the edge of the bank and had landed
beside Heavy.

"It's all right, girls!" shouted Ruth at once. She could see that
the shelf widened a little way beyond, and was overhung by a huge
boulder in the bank, making a really admirable shelter--not exactly a
cave, but a large-sized cavity.

After some urging, Lluella and Belle allowed themselves to be
lowered by Madge and Helen over the brink of the bank. Then Helen
herself slid down, and then the oldest girl. When Miss Steele landed
upon the shelf beside them, she cried:

"This is just a mercy! Another five minutes up there in the wind and
snow, and I don't believe I could have walked at all. My, my! ain't I
cold!"

The six girls cowered together under the overhanging rock. The snow
blew in a thick cloud over their heads and they heard it sifting down
through the trees below them. They were upon a steep side-hill--the
wall of a steep gully, perhaps. How deep it was they had no means of
knowing; but several good-sized trees sprouted out of the hill near
their refuge. They could see the dim forms of these now and then as
the snow-cloud changed.