liked living in the
country better than living in Boston; but still, he was very much
pleased at the thought of seeing his father and mother, and his little
sister, at home. He also liked riding, and was very glad of the
opportunity to ride several days in the carryall, upon the front seat
with his father. He expected that his father would let him have the whip
and reins pretty often to drive.

"It is not certain, however," continued Mary Anna, "that you will go to
Boston this summer. Mother said that perhaps you would not go until the
fall, and then perhaps she would go with you, and bring you back to stay
here through the winter."

"But I don't want to stay here in the _winter_," said Caleb.

"Why not?" said Mary Anna.

"O, it is so cold and snowy;--and we can't play any."

"That's a great mistake," said Dwight; "we have fine times in the
winter."

"Why, what can you do?"

"O, a great many things; last winter we dug out a house in a great
snow-drift under the rocks, and played in it a good deal."

"But it must be very cold in a snow-house," said Caleb.

"O, we had a fire."

"A fire?" said Caleb.

"Certainly," said Dwight, "We put some large stones for the fire-place,
and let the smoke go out at the top."

"But then it would melt your house down."

"It did melt it a little around the sides, and so made it grow larger:
but it did not melt it down. We had some good boards for seats, and we
could stay there in the cold days."

"Yes," said Mary Anna, "I remember I went in one cold, windy day, and I
found you boys all snugly stowed in your snow-house, warm and
comfortable, by a good blazing fire."

"Once we made some candy in our snow-house," said David.

"Did you?" said Caleb.

"Yes," said David; "Mary Anna proposed the plan, and got mother to give
us the molasses in a little kettle, and we put it upon three stones in
our snow-house, and we boiled it all one Wednesday afternoon, and when
it was done, we poured it out upon the snow. It was capital candy."

"_I_ should like to see a snow-house," said Caleb, "very much."

"Then should not you like to stay here next winter? And then we can make
one," said David.

"Perhaps I could make one in Boston," said Caleb.

"Ho!" said Dwight, with a tone of contempt, "_you_ couldn't make a
snow-house."

"But there are enough other boys in Boston to help me," said Caleb.

"There is not any good place," said Mary Anna, in a mild and pleasant
tone. "There is