"Where have you been?" he demanded. "Everybody's been waiting for you.
Miss Mason didn't keep you in, did she?"
Meg looked uncomfortable.
"No, I didn't have to stay in," she admitted.
"Then where were you?" insisted Bobby.
"I was hunting for my locket," confessed Meg. "I heard Daddy say the snow melted a lot last night, and I thought maybe I could find it. But I didn't." She sighed deeply.
Meg still clung to the hope of finding her locket, though the rest of the family had long ago given up the idea that it would ever be found.
A day or two later when the children came into the school yard they were surprised to find a small army of snow soldiers drawn up to receive them. There were six men in a row, headed by a captain, wearing a rakish snow hat and carrying a fine wooden sword.
"Who did it?" asked every one. "Did Mr. Carter make 'em?"
Miss Wright was ready to tell them.
"Some poor tramp who was once a sculptor made them for you," she told the wondering pupils. "John, the janitor, tells me that he was here all last night keeping the fires going because he was afraid the pipes would freeze. This poor artist saw the light, and knocked at the door to ask if he might come in and get warm. I'm glad to say John asked him in and shared his midnight lunch with him. Then he took him home to breakfast with him. But first the artist made these snow men to please you, and perhaps to see if his old skill still was left to him."