NO SCHOOL TO-DAY
And that night it snowed. In the morning, when Johnnie Green crawled from his bed and looked out of the window he could scarcely see the barn. A driving white veil flickered across the farmyard. The wind howled. The blinds rattled. Even the whole house shook now and then as a mighty blast rocked it.
It was just the sort of weather to suit Johnnie Green.
"There won't be any school to-day!" he cried. And he hurried into his clothes much faster than he usually did.
Though Johnnie Green was eager to get out of doors, most of those that lived in the barn were quite content to stay there during such a storm. The old horse Ebenezer especially looked pleased.
"This will be a fine day to doze," he remarked to the pony, Twinkleheels. "Farmer Green won't make me do any work in this weather. The roads must be blocked with drifts already."
Twinkleheels moved restlessly in his stall.
"I don't want to stand here with nothing to do," he grumbled. "If I could sleep in the daytime, as you do, perhaps I wouldn't mind. And if I were like the Muley Cow maybe I could pass the hours away by chewing a cud. Bright and Broad can do that, too," said Twinkleheels.
"Oh! Farmer Green will have the oxen out as soon as the storm slackens," old Ebenezer told him. "And no doubt you'll get outside as soon as they do, for Johnnie Green will want you to play with him in the snow or I don't know anything about boys."
"Good!" Twinkleheels exclaimed. "I hope he'll take me out. It would be great fun to toss him into a snowdrift.... But I don't see what Farmer Green wants of Bright and Broad on a day like this. They'll be slower than ever if the roads are choked with snow."
The old horse Ebenezer smiled to himself as he shut his eyes for another cat nap before breakfast. He thought that Twinkleheels would learn a thing or two, a little later.
Johnnie Green was the first one to plough his way out to the barn that morning. He burst into the barn and stamped the snow off his feet. And Twinkleheels stamped, too, because he wanted something to eat.
Johnnie fed Twinkleheels and Ebenezer and the bays. He was shaking some hay; in front of the Muley Cow (who belonged to him) when his father arrived.
"The worst storm of the winter!" Farmer Green observed. "We'll have work enough after this, breaking the roads out."
"I'll help," Johnnie said. "I'll take Twinkleheels and work hard."
"I suppose," said his father, "we ought to get the road to the schoolhouse cleared first."
"Oh, no!" cried Johnnie. "Let's leave that till the last."
"If we left it for you and Twinkleheels to clear, you wouldn't get back to school before spring," Farmer Green declared.
Twinkleheels had been listening eagerly to all this.
"Now, I wonder what Farmer Green means by that," he muttered. "I hope he doesn't think I can't get through the drifts as well as anybody. I can certainly make my way through the snow better than those clumsy old oxen, Bright and Broad."