“But, Dorothy,” said Lucy, “I should think that they would have been all covered up in the snow.”
“They were not,” replied Dorothy;—“but stop,—let me see. It appears to me that the sun was shining, and that it was a warm, pleasant day when we made our snow-shoes. Yes;—it was; and I have been making a mistake all this time. For we didn’t make our snow-shoes the day that it snowed; it was one day in the spring, when the snow was melting, so that we kept sinking into it, and could not get along.”
“Never mind,” said Royal; “no matter what day it was,—only tell on.”
“Well,” said Dorothy, “I told Oliver that if he had any string in his pocket, so that we could fasten the snow-shoes on, we would make two pair, one for him and one for me. He said that he had got some string, and he drew out a long piece from his pocket. So we found pieces of wood, of the right size, and then we went into the hut, and Oliver undertook to shave them smooth. So he took one of the pieces, and sat down upon the seat before the horse, and put one end of it into the horse’s mouth, and gripped it tight, while he shaved the other end.”
“O Dorothy,” exclaimed the children, “what a story!”
“He did,” said Dorothy, seriously. “He was a little fellow, it is true, but then he was very handy with tools.” Dorothy thought that the children were surprised that such a little boy as Oliver could use the shave; but, in fact, what surprised them was, that the piece of wood was held in the horse’s mouth.
“When he had shaved one half of the piece, he turned it end for end, and shaved the other half. Then he turned it over, and shaved the other side.”
“But how did he get it out of the horse’s mouth?” said Rollo.
“O, there was a little foot-piece down underneath; and when he pressed that with his foot, it pressed down the jaw, and when he lifted off his foot, the jaw came up again, and let the wood out.”
“Why, Dorothy!” said Lucy; “what sort of a horse do you mean?”