“Oh, Lancy, you can’t cut the reins!  How are you going to drive if you do that?” said Dexie, in alarm.

“I can walk and lead the horse.  There is nothing else to do.”

“Wait, Lancy!  Here is my silk scarf; it is real long and strong,” and Dexie forced her cold fingers to untie from under her wraps, the pretty scarf that encircled her neck, which Lancy found to answer his purpose very well.

The sleigh had become so imbedded in the drift, that Lancy was afraid the shafts would pull apart if the horse put forth sufficient strength to extract it, so he decided to take the horse out and turn the sleigh himself.  But when the horse found himself free, he refused to stand still, and Dexie insisted on getting out to hold him.  Leading the horse around the drift to regain the road, Lancy found there was a level stretch extending in the same direction, and he concluded to follow it and thus regain the farmhouse.  He assisted Dexie through the drifts, and as she held the reins he endeavored to turn the sleigh.  But he had not quite accomplished his task when a cry from Dexie came through the storm: 

“Oh, Lancy! come quick!  I cannot hold him, and I hear water running somewhere!  Oh, the horse is in!”

CHAPTER VI.

What new calamity had overtaken them!  Their only hope of safety seemed in the horse, and he had disappeared from sight, leaving only his head showing above the white mass around him.  Lancy was soon at Dexie’s side, and understood the situation at once.  The level stretch of snow was but the covering of a frozen stream that here flowed parallel with the road.  He had led the horse near a weak spot, and the ice had given away beneath him.  The water might not be deep enough to drown him, but Lancy saw at once it would be impossible to get the horse out without assistance.  He helped Dexie back to the sleigh, saying,

“You and Elsie must cover yourselves up in the sleigh, and wait here till I walk back to that house for help.”

“Oh, Lancy! is there no other way?” Dexie cried, her courage giving way at the thought of him leaving them.  “You will get lost in the storm, and we will surely freeze to death before help reaches us.”

But there seemed no other way out of the difficulty, and he hurriedly tucked the robes around them, while he tried to quiet Elsie, who was almost wild with terror when she learned her brother’s intention.

“Hush!  Elsie, dear.  If I stay with you we shall all freeze.  You need not be afraid.  I will surely reach the house and send someone to you if I cannot come back myself.  Don’t cry, dear.  See how bravely Dexie bears it.”

“But you are not her brother,” she sobbed; “she has only herself to think of.  Oh, what shall we do if you are lost in the storm!  How I wish I had never come!” and she buried her face in the seat before her.