CHAPTER IV.
WINTER COMFORT.
Susie and Pen had a grand ride to the farmhouse on the wood-sleigh.
Perched away up there on top of the brushwood, they could get the full effect of every swing and lurch of the load under them. Vosh Stebbins had to chuckle again and again, in spite of his resolute politeness; for the girls would scream a little, and laugh a great deal, when the sleigh sank suddenly on one side in a snowy hollow, or slid too rapidly after the oxen down a steeper slope than common. It was great fun; and, when they reached the house, Susie Hudson almost had to quarrel with aunt Judith to prevent being wrapped in a blanket, and shoved up in a big rocking-chair into the very face of the sitting-room fireplace.
"Do let her alone, Judith," said aunt Farnham. "I don't believe she's been frost-bitten."
"I'm not a bit cold."
"I'm real glad o' that," said aunt Judith; "but ain't you hungry?—Pen, you jest fetch up some krullers."
Susie admitted that she could eat a kruller, and Pen had no need to be told twice.
When Vosh came back from the woods with his second load, it was dinner-time; and Deacon Farnham came with him. Only a few minutes later, there was a great shouting at the kitchen-door, and there were the two boys. The whole family rushed out to see what they had brought home, and Susie thought she had never seen her brother look quite so tall.