bottom? So the eldest and
the youngest brothers, their mother and the little girl, took their
places in the low box and let the biggest brother cover them with a
feather-tick, without any of the gay laughter and banter that marked the
pleasure-rides of former years. Then the biggest brother, only his eyes
showing from his head-wrappings, sprang to his seat behind the horses
and sent the team briskly forward with the storm toward the huge bonfire
of cottonwood logs that had been lighted close to the school-house on
the farther edge of the farthest slough.

When the reservation road, hidden under four feet of packed snow, was
crossed, the pung slid down to the carpeted ice of the first slough in
the train of the capering horses, and was whisked through the crisp
night toward the distant beacon. So swiftly did it scud that, before the
quartet behind realized it, the horses had pressed up the hill beside
the burning cottonwoods and halted before the school-house.

The little girl was the first to scramble from the snug box when the
tick was lifted. Still wearing a big buffalo coat that enveloped her
from head to foot, she squirmed through the door, about which was a
crowd, and threaded her way past the high desk that daily secluded her
while she ate her poor lunches, past the hot stove with its circle of
new-comers, to where, hidden by the chart, stood the teacher. There she
held a moment's whispered conversation, produced a package from under
her greatcoat, and then joined the other children, who were seated up in
front on boards placed across the main aisle.

The little building, that had been saved in the prairie fire by the
well-trodden oval around it, was crowded with the people of the
district, assembled to enjoy their first public entertainment and tree.
Among the younger ones were the Dutchman's girls and their baby nephew,
the neighbor woman's children. "Frenchy's" brother, and the Swede boy.
On either hand and behind were the grown people,--the Dutchman and his
wife, the young couple from the West Fork, the cattleman, "Frenchy," the
Swede, and the big brothers and their mother. When the family entered,
the room was so full that the eldest and the youngest brothers had to
content themselves with a perch on the coal-bins. The little girl,
turning to survey the room, could not catch a glimpse of the biggest
brother, however, and finally concluded that he was still busy with
blanketing the horses and putting them a