Page:Cornelia Meigs-The Pirate of Jasper Peak.djvu/225

 “I didn’t know,” he cried, his voice almost breaking, “I didn’t know that stars could shine  so bright, Hugh!”

What happened next would have shocked Linda Ingmarsson, careful houskeeper that she  was, and might even have given some pain to  Oscar’s tidy Swedish soul. For both boys, fully dressed, got into one bunk together, with Nicholas between them, “just for company,” as Hugh  said. The big dog accomplished wonders in the matter of doubling up his long legs, so that the  combined supply of blankets sufficed to cover  them all. Gradually, as they began to be a little warmer, both the boys relaxed a little from their  long anxiety during the storm. The claim was safe, there was a chance that they could go into the woods in the morning and shoot a partridge  or two, if they could manage to drag themselves  that far. And now the storm was over, certainly Oscar would come soon. Hugh did not think upon these matters long, however, for he was  growing very drowsy.

“Listen,” said Dick at last, rousing himself