"I feel so," remarked Charlotte briefly, and in a flash was sorry she had said it.
"I didn't think Ruth was that kind," Joe said after a pause.
"What kind? She isn't. There isn't anything the matter, and it's all my fault. Ruth's all right, and I don't blame her a bit."
Joe grinned appreciatively behind her back over this mixed statement of affairs. Then he said, "Good for you, Charlotte. You're all right, too. What are you going to do this morning?"
"Shovel snow. It's the only kind of work that I really enjoy."
"Let me help. I like to shovel snow when it isn't in my own yard."
"Run off and play with the other boys," answered Charlotte ungratefully. "I have the twins and Molly on my hands, and that will be enough for one day."
"Don't be foolish and refuse a good thing when it's offered you," said Joe good-naturedly. "I'll help you amuse them."
"Well, come along in then, and read while I get the children ready. Oh, they're out now," she added, as they turned the comer and saw the twins, looking like industrious brownies, rolling a huge snowball across the yard, while Molly was expending her artistic talent on the building of a snow-man.
The clean snow-drifts, glittering in the sunshine, fired Charlotte with the desire to play as she used to play when a child. "Get the shovels, Joe," she commanded, "and after we've cleared the piazza, let's build a snow-house and freeze it."