Page:Cornelia Meigs-The Pirate of Jasper Peak.djvu/231

 shore showed sharp lines of dark and white in its crowded pine trees with their burden of snow.

An hour after noon they had gone out to clear a path to the stable, a heavy task in snow that had  drifted six and seven feet high wherever shelter  offered. Nicholas, running about them, floundered shoulder deep in even the open places and more than once succeeded in burying himself entirely.

“Hugh,” said Dick at last—he had been leaning on his shovel and staring across the ravine—“I wish you would look over there at the pirates’ cabin and tell me what you see.”

Hugh turned to look as he was bid, yet for a moment saw only the half-buried shack and the  group of pointed, snow-covered pines behind it.

“I don’t see anything,” he answered. “What do you think is there?”

“Come over by me so that the chimney is in line with those trees. Don’t you see now, something fluttering on a pole?”

Hugh came close and looked again, long and carefully.