the animals that had pulled them over the snow from the railroad station
the night before.

There were several small sleds in the barn--some that Grandma Ford had
bought when it was decided that the six little Bunkers would visit Great
Hedge Estate--and they were just the proper toys for the six little
children. Soon they were coasting down a small hill which Dick showed
them and also helped trample down smooth for them. For snow on a hill
has to be packed hard and made smooth before one can coast well.

"Let's have a race!" cried Russ, as he and Laddie had their turn riding
down the slope.

"All right, I can beat you!" Laddie shouted. And he would have done so,
too, only he guided wrong, and his sled went into a bank of snow,
upsetting and tumbling him off.

"But I like it!" he shouted as he got up and shook the snow from him.

"When are you going to make the snow man?" asked Vi. "I want to see a
snow man. And are you going to put a phonograph inside him, Russ, and
make him talk?"

"I am if I can find a phonograph little enough," said Russ.

But Russ did not wait for that. With Laddie to help him, he rolled two
or three balls of snow. It was soft, for the sun was now warm, and the
snow packed well. The snowballs were put together, and thus the snow man
was started. The six little Bunkers then made arms and legs for him,
stuck pieces of coal in for buttons on his coat and for his eyes and
nose and mouth, and then Dick gave them an old hat to put on the snow
man's head.

"Now he won't catch cold," said Dick, when the hat had been stuck on.

"Could he catch cold?" asked Vi. "I don't see how he could, 'cause he's
cold already. He makes my hands cold," and she showed her little red
fingers.

"Well, if you hear him sneeze come in and tell me," said Dick with a
smile. "If a snow man sneezes that's a sure sign he's catching cold. So
listen if you hear this one go 'a-ker-choo!' That means we'll have to
get the doctor."

"I guess that's only a joke, like some of Laddie's riddles," remarked
Russ, when Dick had gone back to the barn.

"I'm going to make up a riddle about a snow man, but I haven't got it
thought out yet," said Laddie. "Come on, Russ, let's make a snow fort."

The snow man being finished, the two older Bunker boys let the smaller
children play with it, and throw snowballs at it, trying to knock off
the old hat, and Laddie and Russ started work on the fort.

They had great fun at this, and made quite