"Let it freeze," grumbled Glutts. "I'm not going out again, now I'm comfortable here."

As there was no love lost between the newcomers and our friends, the conversation languished after this. Gif showed Glutts and Werner where they might sleep in the bedroom which had not been occupied, and gave them the necessary bedding and some extra blankets. Then the pair shoved off without even saying good-night and closed the door behind them.

"Real loving and thankful--I don't think," whispered Randy.

"I don't see why those fellows were wished on us," growled his twin.

"I'd just as lief have a skunk in the place as to have either of that pair."

"Well, we couldn't leave them out in the storm to perish," answered Jack, in a low tone; "so we'll have to make the best of it."

"Just the same," whispered Fred, "I'm going to keep my eyes and ears wide open while they are here."

CHAPTER XVII

NEW YEAR'S DAY IN CAMP

When Randy and Andy retired it was a long while before the merry twins could get to sleep again.

"We ought to play some good joke on them," was the way Andy expressed it. "Something they would remember."

"I'd do it in a minute, Andy, if it wasn't that they are so worn out,"

responded his twin. "But I don't think Jack and Fred would like it at all if we disturbed 'em. And, besides, you must remember that while we are here we're Gif's guests."

Gif and Jack were the first to get up in the morning, and they had the fire revived and breakfast underway before any of the others showed themselves.

"Where are Glutts and Werner?" questioned Spouter, when he appeared.

"They haven't showed themselves yet, Spouter," answered Jack. "Might as well let them sleep as long as they want to. They can't leave here in such a storm as this."

The snow was still coming down and the wind was blowing almost as fiercely as it had during the early part of the night. Gazing through the windows, the cadets saw that all of the cedars were bent down with the weight of the fine white crystals. The snow had swept up along one side of the little barn until there was an unbroken line reaching up to the very top.

"Well, I never!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Jack, turning around suddenly to his chums.

"Happy New Year, everybody!"

"Happy New Year!" came from the others, including Fred and the twins, who had just got up.

"Gosh! I forgot all about it's being New Year's," exclaimed Fred.

"This looks like a real New Year's Day, and no mistake," remarked Randy.

"Look outside! Isn't it just like a picture on a New Year's card?"

"It is a.s.suredly a spectacle to fill one with awe and reverence," came from Spouter. "Just gaze upon that magnificent stretch of snowy mantle and those tall cedars bending low before the wintry blasts! Can you imagine what this must be in the solemn depth of the mighty forest, where not a footfall is heard nor a--"

"Jack rabbit can get as much as a turnip to eat?" finished Randy gayly.

"Spouter, if you are going to orate, why don't you stand on the table when you turn on the spigot?"

"Let us have a regular New Year's dinner!" cried Gif, "and then Spouter can do the speech-making--"

"While we do the eating," finished Randy. "Say, Spout, how about it?"

"Nothing doing," was the prompt reply. "I want my share of the eats every time."

"We'll make a regular rabbit potpie to take the place of turkey,"

announced Gif.

"And for dessert, how about that canned plum pudding we brought along?"

queried Fred.

"Great thought, Fred!" answered Randy. "And we can have some of those nuts, too. And to-night we'll try our hand at some candy making."

"One thing you fellows are forgetting," remarked Gif. "And that is that we have Werner and Glutts with us. They'll certainly want their share of the good things."

"What! Plum pudding and all?" questioned Fred, with a gloomy look settling over his face.

"We can't deny them anything that we have ourselves, Fred," replied Jack.

"I don't think Glutts or Werner deserve it!" exclaimed Randy. "I think as soon as this storm clears away they ought to be sent about their business. It isn't so very far to that Tony Duval's place, and with their horse and sleigh they ought to be able to make it somehow."

Randy had scarcely finished speaking when the door to the bedroom the two bullies occupied was flung open and Werner strode into the living room.

"Fine way you have of talking about us, Rover!" he said, with a sour look on his face. "We didn't come here because we wanted to. We came because it was necessary."

"And we said we would pay for whatever we had to eat or drink," added Glutts, who had followed his crony.

"I told you before that you wouldn't have to pay a cent," broke in Gif.

"Just the same, Glutts, we might as well come to an understanding. You know as well as I do that there is no love lost between you fellows and our crowd. You are welcome to stay here and have your dinner, and if you think you can't get out to-day you can stay here for supper and sleep here again to-night. By that time I think the storm will have cleared away, and you will be able to get over to Tony's place without trouble."

"You can take it from me, we won't stay here an hour longer than we have to," declared Werner. And then he turned back into the bedroom to finish his dressing, closing the door behind him.

The presence of the two bullies put a good deal of a damper on our friends, and as a consequence the breakfast was rather a silent one.

Then Gif suggested that Glutts and Werner go out and look after their horse, and this they agreed to do.

"If you won't take any pay we'll stand for our share of the grub,"

announced Werner just before he went out. "We've got some goods in the sleigh, as you know. What shall I bring in?"

"Bring in whatever you think is fair," said Gif, after a few whispered words to Jack and Spouter.

The two bullies were gone the best part of an hour, and during that time the Rovers and their chums cleaned several of the rabbits and also got ready some potatoes and turnips for dinner.

"That will give us quite a meal, along with the dried lima beans that I put to soak last night," said Gif. "Of course, we'll have the plum pudding, well steamed, as Fred suggested."

"And we'll make a pan of biscuits, too," added Spouter. "Gee! by the time we get through up here, fellows, we'll be able to get jobs as chefs in some of the first-cla.s.s New York hotels."

When Glutts and Werner returned they carried two packages which they threw on the living-room table.