"Never mind. I know how we can have more fun," said the older boy.
"How?"
"I'll make some snowshoes for us, and we can walk without sinking down in the snow."
"How can you do that?"
"Oh, I'll show you. I started to make 'em before, but I forgot about it. Now I will."
And, when breakfast was over, and the four older children had been warmly wrapped and allowed to go out to play in the storm, Russ led Laddie to the barn.
"We'll make the snowshoes there," he said. "I have everything all ready."
Laddie saw a pile of barrel staves—the long, thin pieces of wood of which barrels are made, where his brother had stacked them. Russ also had some pieces of rope, a hammer and some nails, and some long poles.
"What are they for?" asked Laddie, pointing to the poles.
"That's to take hold of and help yourself along. It's awful hard to walk on snowshoes—real ones, I mean. And, maybe, it'll be harder to walk on the barrel kind I'm going to make."