"I can't stop, Susie," said Annie; "don't you know mother said we mustn't stop on the way home from school?"
"Well, I don't think mother would care if we stopped now; I am so very cold. Do you?"
"I don't know; I guess we had better hurry home as fast as we can. It would be hard work to start again, you know."
At this juncture the wind tore away Annie's cloak, and the little girls forgot their cold hands as they chased it away off towards the pile of rocks where Annie saw the snake in the summer. Under the shelter of those rocks they sat down a moment to put on the cloak. Of course, mittens must be laid aside, and the little, stiff, benumbed fingers had hard work to fasten the garment, which had lost one of its strings in the encounter with the rude north wind. When at last it was made fast with a pin, Susie said,—
"I am going to rub my hands with snow, Annie! You know Dick Matthews said that he could warm his hands with snow when they were cold!"
Both the little ones rubbed their hands with the snow, and again set out, holding each other firmly by the hand. Several times they repeated the experiment, baring the little delicate fingers to the biting wind. At last they ceased to ache; but the feet were stiff and their limbs tired and weary.
"Do your hands ache now, Susie?"
"No; but my feet do, and my face. Oh, I'm afraid we'll never get home! a'n't you, Annie?"
"It's hard work to walk, and I can hardly stir one step; when I turn my back it seems as if I should fall right down. I do wish Mary would come down to the field and open the gate! don't you?"
"Yes, I do; for my hands are just as stiff as they can be."