cold in here, Amy. Don't scold the boy. See! The storm is getting
worse. I don't know what we shall do about the fire. Parker and Annie
don't seem to know what to do about the heater and I'm sure I don't.
Oh, dear!"

"B-r-rrr!" shivered Mother Bunker. "I am not fond of your New England
winters, Jo. I hope we shall go South----"

"Oh, Mother!" cried Rose excitedly. "Shall we really go down South with
Daddy? Won't that be glorious?"

"I guess it's warm down there," said Laddie. "Or maybe the steampipes
hum."

"Do the steampipes hum down South?" asked Violet.

While the four older children were exceedingly interested in this new
proposal for excitement and adventure, Margy and Mun Bun had returned to
the great window that overlooked the street and the front steps. They
flattened their noses against the cold pane and stared down into the
driving snow. Within this short time, since the storm had begun,
everything was white and the few people passing in the street were like
snowmen, for the white flakes stuck to their coats and other wraps.

"Oh, see that man!" Margy cried to Mun Bun. "He almost fell down."

"He's not a man," said her little brother with confidence. "He's a boy."

"Oh! He's a black boy--a colored boy. That's right, so he is."

The figure in the snow stumbled along the sidewalk, clinging to the iron
railings. When he reached the steps of Aunt Jo's house he slipped down
upon the second step and seemed unable to get up again. His body sagged
against the iron railing post, and soon the snow began to heap on him
and about him.

"Oh!" gasped Margy. "He is a reg'lar snowman."

"He's a black snowman," said Mun Bun. "It must be freezing cold out
there, Margy."

"Of course it is. He'll turn into a nicicle if he stays there on the
steps," declared the little girl, with some anxiety.

"And he hasn't a coat and scarf like you and me," Mun Bun said. "Maybe
he hasn't any Grandma Bell to knit scarfs for him."

"I believe we ought to help him, Mun Bun," said Margy, decidedly. "We
have plenty of coats."

"And scarfs," agreed Mun Bun. "Let's."

So they immediately left the room quite unnoticed by the older people
in it. This is a remarkable fact. Whenever Margy and Mun Bun had
mischief in mind they never asked Mother about it. Now, why was that, do
you suppose?

The two little ones went swiftly downstairs into the front hall. Both
had coats and caps and scarfs hung on pegs in a little dressing-room
near th