Winter Fun

sort of mistake in staying that long. He had understood his duty to his mother precisely, and

ing. Susie's fetched along her brother with her, has she? Now, jest you sit right do

m wants a do

Tell her our poultry's doin' first-rate, and I don't see why she doesn't ever have any kind of luck with winter layin'. She do

ng hens prosper in cold weather. He obeyed his orders excellently, however, and came back at once to make his report to his mother as to the results of his first visit; that is, he r

and saying around the great fire in the sitting-room. Vosh loved his mother dearly; but he was all the while

d nephew must be tired with their long journey, and that they should go to bed in good season. It was of little use for them to assert the c

eard anybody say that night ca

in the morning. You'd a good deal better come r

le old farmhouse. Each owner had added something on one side or the other, or in the rear; so that there was now room enough in it for

se; of course not: they don't h

ch as was really needed. He had never before slept in a feather-bed; but he was not at a

And so he was, and with the warmth came the soundest kind of slumber. The Farnhams had kept any number

s a wonder how much talking there is to be done. It is a good thing, too, that so many enterprising people,

be obtained as can be had in and about a farmhouse away up country, in the dead of winter and the dead of ni

Hudson slept in was as dark as a pocket when he heard the clang of Penelope's first bell that next morning after his arrival. He sprang out of bed at once, and

place in the sitting-room. He dressed himself with remarkable quickness, and followed them. He thought that h

d smiling on him; and Porter's next idea was, that his aunt

ld weather to freeze her," he sa

en Corry and his father came in from feeding the stock, however, they both declared that it was a "splendid, frosty, nippin

we're in f

ht. What

. You and I'll take our guns with us, and

some ra

r's gun, and you

ce sounded from the

sie? They're going to

they'll

e they

arnham! Look out

splendidly.-Susie, some of your sausages ar

ok them all myself. Yo

sausages,-what a breakfast t

cooking or the eating; and she certainly did her share of bo

?" asked Corry a lit

you ever get any thing big

ing this morning are the mountains. Not a farm till y

know a

in winter. Last winter there was a bear came

g back? Was

m. But we followed the bear, and we got

ccustomed to following and killing all the bear

red a bit. There won't be a sin

e almost regretfully. "H

tures; and, just as breakfast was over, there came a great noise of ra

e is!" s

Stebbins with Deacon Farnham's great wood-sleigh, drawn

r draw it?" asked

besides, they've nothing else to do. We'

d Susie and Pen were in that sleigh a little in advance of everybody else. Its d

Vosh. What a tr

en, "that isn't a wh

side of a long, heavy "tongue;" but the foremost pair were fastened to the end of that by a chain which passed between them to a hook in the

y the huge beasts kept the right track down through the gate and out into the

e," said Susie; and Vosh only re

u'll find

ll over his broad, ruddy face, as she made a d

w! Git ap! C

ght, while Vosh put his handkerchief over h

ate. I'll hire you to team it for me all the rest of the winter.-Boys,

ers do that, and so he knew it was the correct way to carry a gun. He was now quite willing, however, to imitate Corry, and put his weapon down flat on the bottom of the sleigh. The gun would be safe there; and, b

said, "give

ascent, and right beyond them the fences on either side of the road seemed to stop. Bey

hickory stock, the heavy, far-reaching lash at the end of it came around with a "swish," and knocked the coon-

g! Get up! G'lan

of oxen right under his nose did not seem to mind it much, and plodded right along as if they had not heard any

Haw! G

on the left ear. It was a complete success, undoubtedly; but, to Porter's astonishment, that bewildered yoke of steers forward whirle

prang out of the sleigh, saying something, as he went, about "not wanting to h

saw an ox-team gee and haw t

usie, "what d

rn 'em this way, and it's 'haw' to turn 'em

he sleigh was pulled out of the road, half a mile farther, into a sort of open space in the forest. There was not much depth of snow on the ground, and there were

g for the fireplace?

are," said Pen;

ves after we get 'em to the house. The

n felling big trees, and that young gentleman had frankly proposed

udly, as the stalwart old farmer walked up to

endid!" s

the sleigh now, and seemed dete

p, and let them go down exactly in the right place; and the glittering edges went in, in,

id Corry. "You fetch along that other axe, and we'll try one. They've a

eigh and look on, and the oxen stood as st

e comes Ponto. Nobody knew w

oming up the road with a succession of short, sharp barks, as if he w

ming right in

r Corry. He's only smelling to see if th

he h

Vosh won't go, he goes off and hunts by hi

ose told him, but at the end of it he sat down on the snow near the sleigh. No dog of g

t he knew how to handle an axe, if he could not bury one as deeply in the wood of a tree as could his father or Vos

right down. Maybe

e any in winter? Do

bee-trees, and the bees must be in 'em

he axe hit squarely the first time it struck, but it did not more than go through the bark. No scratch like that would get a chip ready. Porter colored with vexation; and he gave his next cut a little hastily, but he gave it with all his might

ecla

et's get our guns, and go down into the swamp for so

his axe with a pretty r

ter. I'm not much

ourse

coal in t

I know how it is. Go

They were nearly of an age; but a city boy of fourteen has seen a great many things that one of the same years, br

and now they got their guns out of the sleigh, slung their powder-flasks

n between every two trees, and through each and every clump of bushes, as if in a desperate state of dread lest he might miss the tracks of some game o

the woods than girls," be

t tree. It'll come down pretty quickly. It

s her uncle and Vosh Stebbins were working on. Vosh chopped for dear life; but, in spite of all he could do, the deacon had his tree down first. It was a tall, noble-looking tree. There were no branches near t

it's c

s, Susie: keep 'em o

she could not look any longer, and she put her head down. Then she heard a tremendous dull, crashing sound,

it sp

, it's wo

most ready. There!

own into the arms of a smaller one, crashing and breaking through them; and the sharp, snapp

s of a sort of still feeling, as if she