NICKNACK SEES HIMSELF
The snow was just right for making snow houses, or for rolling big balls that grow in size the more you push them along. For the snow was wet—that is, the flakes stuck together. Sometimes, when the weather is cold, the snow is dry and almost like sand. Then is not a good time to try to make snow houses, snow men or big snowballs.
"But it's just right now!" cried Teddy, as he ran into the back yard with his sister and the other girl and boy. "We'll make a fine snow house!"
"First we'll make some big snowballs," said Tom Taylor.
"I thought we were going to make a snow house!" exclaimed Ted.
"So we are," agreed Tom. "But the way to start is to make big snowballs. Roll them as big as you can and they'll make the sides of the house. We'll pile a lot of snowballs together and fill in the cracks between. That's the way to start."
"FIRST WE'LL MAKE SOME BIG SNOWBALLS," SAID TOM TAYLOR.
Ted and the others saw that this was a good way, and so they began. First they each made a little snowball. But as they rolled them along around the big yard the balls gathered the snow up from the ground, packing it around the little ball that had first been started, until Ted's was so big that he could hardly move it.
"It's big enough now!" called Tom. "Put it over here, where we're going to start the snow house, and I'll roll my big ball next to yours, Ted."
This was done. Then Jan's snowball, and that of Lola were put in a row and the four walls of the snow house were started. There was plenty of the snow to be had and the children worked fast. Before dusk they had the four walls of the house made, with a doorway and windows cut, but there was no roof on, though the walls of the white house were above Tom's head, and he was the tallest.
"Aren't we going to make a roof?" asked Ted.
"We'll do that to-morrow," answered Tom. "We ought to have some boards to lay across the top, and then we could pile snow on them. It's easier that way, but you can make a roof of just snow. Only it might fall in on our heads."
"We don't want that," said Janet. "Boards are better, Tom."
When it was too dark to see to do any more work on the snow building, the Curlytops went into the house and their playmates hurried to their home for supper.
"We'll finish the house to-morrow," called Teddy to Tom.
The next afternoon, when they came home from school, the children started to make the roof. Ted had asked his father to get him some boards, and this Mr. Martin had done. They were laid across the top of the four walls, and snow was piled on top of them, so that from the outside the house looked as if made entirely of snow. From the inside the boards in the roof showed, of course, but no one minded that.
The snow house was large enough for five small children to get in it and stand up, though Tom's head nearly touched the roof.
"But that doesn't count," laughed Ted. "You can pretend you're a giant and you could lift the roof off with your head if you wanted to."
"Only you mustn't want to!" cautioned Jan.
"I won't," promised Tom.
"We ought to have a door so we could close it, and then it would be like a real house," Lola said.
"Couldn't we make one?" asked Ted.
"It would be hard to make a door fast to the snow sides of the house," answered Tom. "If we had a blanket we could hang it up for a curtain-door, though."
"I'll get one!" cried Janet, and she ran in to ask her mother for one.
The blanket was tacked to the edge of one of the boards in the roof, and hung down over the square that was cut out in the snow wall for the door. When the blanket was pulled over the opening it was as cozy inside the snow house as one could wish.
"And it's warm, too!" cried Ted. "I guess we could sleep here all night."
"But I'm not going to!" exclaimed Jan quickly. "Anyhow we haven't got anything to sleep on."
"We can make some benches of snow," Tom said. "Let's do it!"
"How?" asked Ted.
"Well, we'll just bring in some snow and pile it up on the floor along the inside walls. Then we can cut it square and level on top, as high as we want it, and we can sit on it or lie down on it and make-believe go to sleep."
"That'll be fun!" cried Lola.
With their shovels the Curlytops and the others were soon piling snow up around the inside walls of the white house. Then the benches were cut into shape, and they did make good places to sit on; though it was too cold to lie down, Mrs. Martin said when she came out to look at the playhouse, and she warned the children not to do this.
"We ought to have a chimney on the house," suggested Tom, after he had gone outside to see how it looked.
"We can't build a fire, can we?" asked Jan, somewhat surprised.
"No, of course not!" laughed Ted. "A fire would melt the snow. But we can make a chimney and pretend there's smoke coming out of it."
"Let's do it!" cried Lola.
"All right," agreed Tom. "You're the lightest, Teddy, so you get up on the roof. You won't cave it in. I'll toss you up some snow and you can make it square, in the shape of a chimney."
This Ted did, and with a stick he even marked lines on the snow chimney to make it look as if made of bricks.
"That's fine!" cried Tom. "It looks real!"
"It would look realer if we had something like black smoke coming out," declared Janet.
"Oh, I know how to do that!" exclaimed Lola.
"How?" asked her brother.
"Get some black paper and stick it on top of the chimney."
"Maybe my mother's got some," said Ted. "I'll go and ask her."
Mrs. Martin found an old piece of wrapping paper that was almost black in color, and when this had been rumpled up and put on top of the snow chimney, where Ted fastened it with sticks, at a distance it did look as though black smoke were pouring out of the white snow house.
"Now we ought to have something to eat, and we could pretend we really lived in here," said Janet, after a bit, when they were sitting on the benches inside the house.
"You go and ask mother for something," suggested Ted. "I got the paper smoke. You go and get some cookies."
"I will," Janet promised, and she soon came running from the house with a large plate full of molasses and sugar cookies that Nora had given her.
"Um! but these are good!" cried Tom, as he munched some with the Curlytops and his sister.
"This is a fine house!" exclaimed Teddy. "I'm glad you helped us build it," he said to Tom.
"Only it wants some glass in the windows," said Ted, looking at the holes in the snow walls of the house.
"We don't need glass," immediately put in Tom.
"Why not?" asked Jan. "If we put wooden windows in we can't see through 'em."
"We can use sheets of ice!" cried Tom. "My father said that that's the way the Eskimos do up at the north pole. They use ice for glass."
"You can see through ice all right," said Ted. "But where could we get any thin enough for windows for our snow house?"
"All the ice on the pond and lake is covered with snow," added Lola.
"We can put some water out in pans," went on Tom. "If it's cold to-night it will freeze in a thin sheet of ice, and then to-morrow we can make windows of it for our snow house."
"Oh, that'll be fun!" cried Ted.
"It will be almost like a real house!" added Jan.
Mrs. Martin said, when the Curlytops asked her, that Tom's plan might work if the night turned cold enough to freeze. And as after dark it did get colder she put some water out in large shallow pans. In the morning the water was frozen into thin sheets of ice, clear as crystal, and Ted and Jan could see right through them as well as they could see through glass.
"They're great!" cried Tom when he saw them, and that afternoon when school was out, the ice windows were set in the holes in the walls of the snow house.
"'Dis nice place!" Trouble said, when he was taken out to it. "I 'ikes it here! I stay all night!"
"No, I guess you won't stay all night," laughed Tom. "You might freeze fast to the snow bench."
"How plain we can see out of the windows," said Lola. "Oh, see, Ted, here comes your goat! I guess he's looking for you."
"He must 've got loose and 've run out of his stable," said Teddy. "I'll go to fasten him up. Here, Nicknack!" he called as he walked out of the snow house toward his pet.
Nicknack kept on coming toward the white house. He walked up to one of the windows. The sun was shining on it and as Ted looked he cried:
"Oh, I can see Nicknack in the glass window just as if it was a looking glass. And Nicknack can see himself!"
This was true. The goat came to a sudden stop and looked at his own reflection in the shiny ice window. Nicknack seemed much surprised. He stamped in the snow with his black hoofs, and then he raised himself up in the air on his hind feet. At the same time he went:
"Baa-a-a-a! Baa-a-a-a-a!"
"Oh, Nicknack's going to buck!" cried Ted.
"Who's he going to buck?" asked Tom, sticking his head out of the blanket door of the snow house.
"I guess he thinks he sees another goat in the shiny ice window," went on Ted, "and he's going for that. Oh, look out! Come back, Nicknack! Come back!" Teddy yelled.
But with another bleat and a shake of his head Nicknack, having seen himself reflected in the ice window, and thinking it another goat, started on a run for the snow house, inside of which were Jan, Tom, Lola and Trouble.