The latter alighted from the cutter, and entered the boarding house, while Joe turned the heads of the horses toward his own home.
"I guess you'll be glad to get indoors," he said to Reggie and Mabel.
"Well, it's pretty cold," Reggie admitted, "though I suppose my sister will say she likes it."
"I do!" declared Mabel. "But it isn't so nice when it's dark," she confessed.
They were now on the principal street of Riverside, and the lamps from the shop windows gleamed dimly on the swirling flakes, and drifts of snow.
A little later Joe pulled up in front of his own house, and escorted the visitors into the cheery living room.
"Here they are, Mother—Clara!" he called, as Mrs. Matson and her daughter came out to welcome their guests.
"I am glad to see you," said Clara, simply, as she kissed Mabel——and one look from the sister's eyes told Joe that Clara approved of his friends.
"Where's father?" asked Joe.
"Bathing his eyes," replied his mother. "He'll be here presently," for Mr. Matson had recently undergone an operation on his eyes, after an accident, and they still needed care.