rld had been wrapped in a blanket of the
whitest, fleeciest, shiningest wool. Sidewalks, streets, crossings
were all leveled to one smoothness. The fences were so muffled that
they had swelled to twice their size. The houses wore trim, pointy
caps on their gables. The high bushes in the yard hung to the very
ground. The low ones had become mounds. The trees looked as if they
had been packed in cotton-wool and put away for the winter.

"And the lovely part of it is, it's still snowing," Maida exclaimed
blissfully.

"Glory be, it'ull be a blizzard before we're t'rough wid ut," Granny
said and shivered.

Maida dressed in the greatest excitement. Few children came in to
make purchases that morning and the lines pouring into the
schoolhouse were very shivery and much shorter than usual. At a
quarter to twelve, the one-session bell rang. When the children came
out of school at one, the snow was whirling down thicker and faster
than in the morning. A high wind came up and piled it in the most
unexpected places. Trade stopped entirely in the shop. No mother
would let her children brave so terrific a storm.

It snowed that night and all the next morning. The second day fewer
children went to school than on the first. But at two o'clock when
the sun burst through the gray sky, the children swarmed the
streets. Shovels and brooms began to appear, snow-balls to fly,
sleigh-bells to tinkle.

Rosie came dashing into the shop in the midst of this burst of
excitement. "I've shoveled our sidewalk," she announced
triumphantly. "Is anything wrong with me? Everybody's staring at
me."

Maida stared too. Rosie's scarlet cape was dotted with snow, her
scarlet hat was white with it. Great flakes had caught in her long
black hair, had starred her soft brows--they hung from her very
eyelashes. Her cheeks and lips were the color of coral and her eyes
like great velvety moons.

"You look in the glass and see what they're staring at," Maida said
slyly. Rosie went to the mirror.

"I don't see anything the matter."

"It's because you look so pretty, goose!" Maida exclaimed.

Rosie always blushed and looked ashamed if anybody alluded to her
prettiness. Now she leaped to Maida's side and pretended to beat
her.

"Stop that!" a voice called. Startled, the little girls looked up.
Billy stood in the doorway. "I've come over to make a snow-house,"
he explained.

"Oh, Billy, what things you do think of!" Maida exclaimed. "Wait
till I get A