"Well I'm glad I learned," she answered. "What's that over there,
Bobby?"
She pointed to something fluttering from a bush on the other side of the pond.
"Let's go and look," said Bobby. And then, as they came up to it, he said: "Oh, it's an old skating cap. Guess some one lost it and they've hung it there so he'll see it."
At the head of the pond they came to the creek. This, too, was frozen over solidly, and, joining hands, Meg and Bobby began to follow its winding way.
"'Member how it looks in the summer time?" asked Meg. "These bushes meet across it then."
Great high banks of snow rose on either side of the creek, and when they reached the twin oaks, so called because the two trees had grown together to form one trunk, where they must turn off to reach Mrs. Anson's house, Meg and Bobby had trouble finding a foothold.
They took off their skates and managed to scramble up the bank, however, and then found themselves in a field of snow, unbroken save for a few little dots and dashes that they recognized as rabbit tracks.
"They don't clean off their walks, do they?" giggled Meg. "How do you tell where Mrs. Anson's house is?"
"See the chicken wire sticking up?" replied Bobby. "And there's smoke coming out of her chimney."
Sure enough, at a distance across the field the children could see rough posts sticking up which they knew were part of the chicken-yard fence. Soft, black smoke was coming out of a chimney, too, and drifting against the sky.