ace flew out of bed,
scrambling into her clothes with such eager haste that Cherry opened her
eyes and demanded, "What are you hurrying for? The house is cold as a
barn. Gail slept late this morning, and the fire can't be more than
beginning to burn."

"Huh, I don't care! It snowed last night, and I'm going out to shovel,"
was the scornful reply. "If you want a chance to help, you will have to
hurry."

Allee scrambled out from the warm blankets, but Cherry snuggled down
closer in the pillows with a contented grunt, and was soon lost in
slumberland again, so the two youngest sisters had the whole
snow-covered world to themselves when they stepped out into the winter
morning with shovel and broom.

"Whee! Isn't this fine!" cried Peace, whirling a cloud of feathery
flakes off the porch with one sweep. "We won't need the shovel at all,
the snow is so light."

Beauty-loving Allee stopped awestruck on the threshold to drink in the
glory of the winter dawn, saying slowly, "It is--it looks like--"

"Ice-cream," finished Peace. "S'posing it was ice-cream and we could
have all we wanted. Wouldn't we be a sick crowd by night?"

The startled sister pulled on her mittens and trudged down the steps to
work, and in a few minutes, the porches and paths were swept clean.

"Wish there was more to do," sighed Allee, when they had finished their
chosen task, unwilling to go indoors even for breakfast.

"Tell you what," cried Peace, from her perch on the gatepost. "Let's go
down to the village and sweep paths for money. Perhaps we could earn
enough to buy a chicken."

"All right! Where will we go?"

"Judge Abbott will pay us, I'm sure, and Mr. Strong would hire us, too,
if he hasn't swept his own walks. Maybe Lute Dunbar isn't home yet and
we can get their paths."

Without further discussion they sped away to town, dragging their brooms
behind them. But here disappointment awaited the small toilers, for at
nearly every house some enterprising soul had already cleared away the
light snow.

"Lute Dunbar must be at home, I guess," sighed Peace, when she beheld
the neat paths circling that house; "and Mr. Strong has swept his whole
yard, looks like. Well, Judge Abbott's porch is all covered yet. Hector
is lazy. We will try him."

Marching up to the door, she knocked timidly, but to her dismay, no one
answered, though three times she repeated the summons.

"What shall we do, go back home?" asked Allee, visibly disappointed, for