WINTER FUN

BY WILLIAM O. STODDARD

AUTHOR OF "DAB KINZER," "THE QUARTET," "SALTILLO BOYS," ETC.

NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
1885

Copyright, 1885, by
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS.

ELECTROTYPED AND PRINTED
BY RAND, AVERY, AND COMPANY,
BOSTON.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I. All around a Fireplace
CHAPTER II. Right Out into the Woods
CHAPTER III. The Rabbit-hunt
CHAPTER IV. Winter Comfort
CHAPTER V. A Winter Picnic-party
CHAPTER VI. The Donation-party
CHAPTER VII. The Word-battle at Cobbleville
CHAPTER VIII. An Old-fashioned Snow
CHAPTER IX. Grand Coasting
CHAPTER X. The Deer-hunt on the Crust
CHAPTER XI. On the Ice
CHAPTER XII. A Very Exciting Winter Evening
CHAPTER XIII. A Fireside Story
CHAPTER XIV. The Bear-trap
CHAPTER XV. The New Chessmen
CHAPTER XVI. Winter Flowers and the Party
CHAPTER XVII. The Snow-fort
CHAPTER XVIII. The Sugar-bush and the Bear
CHAPTER XIX. The Flood and the End

SCRIBNER'S BOOKS FOR THE YOUNG.
FRANK R. STOCKTON'S POPULAR STORIES.
WILLIAM O. STODDARD'S CAPITAL STORIES FOR BOYS.

WINTER FUN.

CHAPTER I.

ALL AROUND A FIREPLACE.

The gate that opened from the yard into the lane leading back to the barn was directly opposite the side-door of the house. The door was shut, but the gate was open; and in it stood a gray-haired dame with a sharp nose and silver-rimmed spectacles. The house behind her was a small one, white-painted, without blinds to its windows, but with an air of snug comfort all over it. Just beyond the gate and the woman stood a tall, vigorous-looking young fellow of not more than eighteen; and his left hand was on the nose of a nice-looking horse; and behind the horse was a neat, bright, very red cutter. The boy's face was also somewhat rosy; and so, for that frosty moment, was the tip of his mother's nose.

"Now, Lavawjer, that there cutter's all you've got to show for about as hard a month's work as ever you put in; but I won't say that the deacon drew a hard bargain with ye."

"Well, mother, just look at it."

"I'm a-lookin' at it, and it isn't the cutter it was. You've had it painted red, and varnished, and you've put on a new goose-neck in place of the broken one, and there's room in it for two if neither one on 'em was too heavy."

"That's so, mother; and all you've got to do is just to try it. I'll take you to meeting in it next Sunday. You ought to see how the colt gets over the snow with only that cutter behind him."

"I ain't a bit sorry you've got somethin' for him to do. You've been a-raisin' on him since before he was a yearlin', and he hasn't earned his keep."

Mrs. Stebbins had made her first look at her son's new cutter a severe and searching one, and she told him very fully all her thoughts about it and about the sorrel colt. She was a faithful mother; but there was pride in her eye, and more red on the tip of her nose, when she turned to go into the house. He did not hear her say to herself,—

"He's the smartest boy in all Benton Valley, and now he's got the nicest horse and cutter,—that is, for his age, considerin',—and I ain't one bit afraid it'll spile him."

He was now leading his sorrel pet, with the jaunty cutter following, out through the lane to the barn. It was a grand thing, and out of the common range of human events, for a country-boy of his age to have such an outfit all his own. Such things can always be accounted for, when you find them happening. If he were not just a little "spiled," it was no fault of his mother. She was a widow, and he was her only son; and she had talked to him and about him pretty steadily from the day he was born. He looked older than he really was now, and she often said so; but she sometimes added that he knew enough for a man