ought to the subject Instead, from morning till
night, through the lower western windows, now tunneled free, she scanned
the snow-sheeted, glistening prairie. It stretched away silent,
pathless, and treacherous, smiling up so brightly that it blinded those
who crossed it; and hiding, as smilingly, those who lay beneath the
drifts that covered it.

But discussion over the naming never flagged among the big brothers, for
they did not yet share her anxiety. The chores were their only
interruption; still, while they made twists for the stove, melted snow
for the thirsty stock, or pitched hay out of the shaft that had been
sunk to the half-used stack and piled it into the covered barn through a
hole in the roof, they kept up the debate. But with all the time and
talk given the matter, no agreement seemed possible, until one day when
the biggest brother made a suggestion.

He proposed that each write a name upon a piece of paper and place it in
a hat, and that the little girl's hand be put in among the pieces, so
that she could take hold of one. The name on the slip she seized should
be hers. So the ballots were prepared, the neighbor woman brought the
little girl, and one tiny clinging fist was guided into the crown. But
though the pink palm would close on a finger, it refused to grasp a
ballot; and, to show her disapproval of the scheme, the little girl
held her breath until she was purple, screwed up her face, and began to
cry lustily.

The big brothers, when they found that she would not choose for herself,
repaired in disgust to the attic. But as they gathered gloomily about
the stovepipe, a second plan offered itself to them in the shape of the
dominoes, and they began to play, with the understanding that whoever
came out winner in the end might name the little girl.

The contests were exciting and raged from dinner-time till dusk, the
dogs looking on from an outer circle and joining their barks to the
shouts of the boys. When the last game came to a close under the
swinging, smoky lantern that lighted the room from its nail on a rafter,
the eldest brother, victorious, arose and led the way to the
sitting-room, the other two following with the pack, and proudly
proclaimed the little girl Edith Maud.

But he had not counted on his mother's wishes. For when she heard the
result of the dominoes, she overturned the whole project, much to the
delight of the vanquished, by declaring that she did not like Edith Maud
at a