One day Ronald and Henry, Jessie’s brother, took it into their heads to build a large snow-house in the yard back of the house. It was to be capacious enough to receive half a dozen boys at once, and so high as to admit of their standing upright within it. There was plenty of snow all around, and by working diligently with their shovels about an hour, they accumulated a pretty large heap. They had beat it down hard with their shovels, as they piled it up, so that it was quite solid. But after working harmoniously together, all this time, some differences of opinion at length began to arise between the two builders. Henry wanted to pile on more snow, and make the house larger. Ronald insisted that it was large enough, now. Henry, who was taller than Ronald, declared that he should not be able to stand up straight in it. Ronald told him not to be alarmed about that, for in digging out the inside, he meant to go clean down to the ground, which would make the hut nearly two feet higher than it appeared to be.
So Ronald carried his point, and Henry yielded somewhat reluctantly. They worked together again for a while, though not quite so merrily as before, smoothing and rounding off the pile into a regular shape. But when this was completed, they again began to dispute. Not that either of them was of a quarrelsome disposition, but there was an honest difference of opinion between them, and, as will sometimes happen in such cases, each was more ready to argue his own side than to listen to the other. Henry was for throwing a quantity of water upon the heap, by which means the outside would be turned into solid ice, as the water froze. He proposed to do this now, and to leave the work of excavation until another day. But Ronald thought the heap was compact and solid enough as it was, and it would only be throwing away labor to put water upon it. He determined to dig it out at once; and having marked a place for the door, he forthwith began to hollow out the hut, without further argument. Henry stood leaning upon his shovel, apparently not much pleased with the independent spirit displayed by Ronald; but he said little, and offered no further assistance.
Such was the position of affairs, when footsteps were heard on the other side of the fence, and Ronald, looking over, spied Jessie, who had evidently set out for a walk.
“Where are you going, Jessie?” he inquired.
“Down to the pond, to see the ice-boat,” replied Jessie.
“Hold on a minute and I’ll go, too,” said Ronald, throwing down his shovel, and brushing the snow from his clothes.
“That’s right—I should like company,” replied Jessie. “Wont you come, too, Henry?”
“I can’t—it’s about time for me to go home,” replied Henry.
“Well, don’t you touch my snow-house, while I’m gone, will you?” interposed Ronald.