, and, of course, the longer you stay the more
snow you will have to plough through. I will help you put on your
wraps, and then I want you to hurry home. Don't stop to play in the
snow and don't build snow men or throw snowballs. Go straight home,
because your mothers may begin to worry about you."

They went into the cloakroom to get their wraps, and Miss Davis had to
turn on the light for them because it was so dark. The window was high
in the wall, and the wind had blown so much snow against it that the
room was "like five o'clock at night," Carleton Marsh said.

"Now remember, don't play, but hurry home," said Miss Davis, when the
last legging was buttoned and all the mittens were matched. Perry
Phelps lost one of his mittens regularly every day and Miss Davis
always had to find it for him. "Don't stop to play in the snow till
you have been home and had your lunch. You'll have the whole afternoon
to play in."

It was much colder than it had been in the morning. Sunny Boy knew
that as soon as he went out on the steps. But he did not know how cold
it was till he and the other children turned the first corner. Then
the wind struck them and Dorothy Peters cried that she couldn't breathe!

"Turn your back to it," Sunny Boy advised her, pulling his fur cap down
over his ears.

But the wind seemed to blow in several directions at once. It swooped
down around the children and blew stinging snowflakes into their eyes.
It howled and shrieked and tore over the roofs of the houses, bringing
great sheets of snow with it.

"It wasn't like this, this morning," complained Carleton, stamping his
feet to warm them.

Though none of them knew it, the storm was now a blizzard and it was
cold enough and windy enough and snowy enough to make grown-ups most
uncomfortable, to say nothing of small boys and girls who had to walk
through the storm. It was a mistake for the teacher to send the
children home alone.

"I can't see where I'm going!" gasped Jimmie Butterworth, trying to
wipe the snow from his face with his mittens.

Jessie Smiley stubbed her toe against something and began to cry.

"I'm so cold!" she wailed. "My nose is frozen, I know it is. And I
never saw that funny fence before."

Sunny Boy looked up at the great iron fence. The snow had blown
against it till it was almost covered. There was a row of ash cans set
out on the curb in front of this fence and they were so completely
covered with snow th