"So you found them?" put in Rodney. "Where?"

"On the road about three miles from this place--close to where the
Chelingworth cabin used to stand."

"Did you find them in the snow?" queried Dave, with deep interest.

"I did an' I didn't. Ye see, they was wrapped in the bundle an' the bundle
was tied up to a tree limb."

"And left there all alone?" cried Mrs. Morris, who was busy feeding the
little ones.

"It was a case of necessity, ma'am. The man who had had the children had
done his best by 'em, an' he couldn't do no more," returned Sam Barringford
gravely.

"Tell us the particulars, Sam," said James Morris.

"I will. I was coming along the trail, fightin' my way as best I could in
the teeth of the wind, an' feelin' bitter cold a-doin' of it, when I came
to a spot where there had been a fight between a man, a horse, and some
wild beasts--wolves, most likely. I couldn't git the straight of it at
fust, but at last I figured out that the horse had gone into a hole, broke
his leg, and pitched the man out on his head on the rocks. The man had had
the babies in a bundle, and to keep 'em from gettin' too cold had put 'em
in the tree instead of on the ground, or else he did it to save the babies
from the wild beasts.

"The wild beasts had done their bloody work well, and man an' horse had