"Like a regular old blizzard," declared Neale.
"Is it snowing as hard as it did the night we came from Carrie Poole's party?" asked Ruth, interested.
"Just come out on the porch and see," advised the boy, and they all trooped out after him—even Tess putting down her pencil and following at the rear of the procession.
It must have been snowing ever since supper time, for the lower step was already covered, and the air was thick with great, fleecy flakes, which piled drifts rapidly about every object in the Corner House back yard.
A prolonged "Oh!" came from every one. The girls could not see the street fence. The end of the woodshed was the limit of their vision down the long yard. Two or three fruit trees loomed like drooping ghosts in the storm.
"Wonderful! wonderful!" cried Ruth.
"No school to-morrow," Agnes declared.
"Well, I shall be glad, for one thing," said the worried Tess. "I won't have to bother about that old composition until another day."
Agnes was closely investigating the condition of the snow. "See!" she said, "it packs beautifully. Let's make a snowman."
"Goody-good!" squealed Dot. "That'll be fun!"