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“Clear the lulla!” was the general cry on a bright
December afternoon, when all the boys and girls of
Harmony Village were out enjoying the first good snow of
the season. Up and down three long coasts they went as
fast as legs and sleds could carry them. One smooth path
led into the meadow, and here the little folk congregated;
there was a group of lads and lasses sitting or leaning on a
fence to rest after an exciting race, and, as they
reposed
,
they amused themselves with
criticising
their mates.
“Here comes Frank Minot, looking as solemn as a
judge,” cried one, as a tall fellow of sixteen spun by, with a
set look about the mouth and a keen sparkle of the eyes,
fixed on the distant goal with a
do-or-die expression
.
“Here’s Molly Loo and Little Boo,” sang out another;
and down came a girl with flying hair, carrying a small boy
behind her, so fat that his short legs
stuck out
from the
sides, and his round face looked over her shoulder like a
full moon.
“There’s Gus Burton; doesn’t he go it?” and such a very
long boy
whizzed
by, that it looked almost as if his heels
were at the top of the hill when his head was at the
bottom!
“Hurrah for Ed Devlin!” and a general shout greeted a
sweet-faced lad with a laugh on his lips, a fine colour on
his brown cheek, and a gay word for every girl he passed.
“Laura and Lotty keep to the safe coast into the
meadow, and Molly Loo is the only girl that dares to try
this long one to the pond. I wouldn’t for the world; the ice
can’t be strong yet, though it is cold enough to freeze one’s
nose off,” said a
timid
damsel, who sat
hugging
a post and
screaming whenever a mischievous lad shook the fence.
“No, she isn’t. Here’s Jack and Jill going like fury.”
“Clear the track for jolly Jack!” sang the boys, who had
rhymes and
nicknames
for nearly everyone.
Down came a gay red sled, bearing a boy who seemed
all smile and sunshine, so white were his teeth, so golden
was his hair, so bright and happy his whole air.
Behind him
clung
a girl, with black eyes and
hair, cheeks as red as her hood, and a face full of
fun and sparkle, as she waved Jack’s blue
tippet
like a
banner
with one hand, and held on with the other.
“Jill goes wherever Jack does, and he lets her. He’s such
a
good-natured
chap, he can’t say
No
.”
“To a girl,”
slyly
added one of the boys, who had wished
to borrow the red sled, and had been politely refused
because Jill wanted it.
“He’s the nicest boy in the world, for he never gets
mad,” said the timid young lady, recalling the many times
Jack had shielded her from the terrors which beset her
path to school, in the shape of cows, dogs, and boys who
made faces and called her ‘Fraidcat’.
“He doesn’t dare to get mad with Jill, for she’d take his
head off in two minutes if he did,” growled Joe Flint.
“She wouldn’t! She’s a dear! You needn’t sniff at her
because she is poor. She’s ever so much brighter than you
are, or she wouldn’t always be at the head of your class,
old Joe,” cried the girls, standing by their friend with a
unanimity
which proved what a favourite she was.
Joe subsided with as scornful a curl to his nose as its
chilly state permitted, and Merry Grant introduced a
subject of general interest by asking abruptly, “Who is
going to the candy-scrape tonight?”
“All of us, Frank invited the whole set, and we shall
have a tiptop time. We always do at the Minots’,” cried
Sue, the timid trembler.
“Jack said there was a
barrel
of
molasses
in the house,
so there would be enough for all to eat and some to carry
away. They know how to do things handsomely”, and the
speaker licked his lips, as if already tasting the feast in
store for him.
“Mrs Minot is a mother worth having,” said Molly Loo,
coming up with Boo on the sled; and she knew what it was
to need a mother, for she had none, and tried to care for
the little brother with maternal love and
patience
.
“She is just as sweet as she can be!” declared Merry,
enthusiastically.
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