things.

"So I set still in my room in the attic, an' Gran'dad set still in the
room downstairs, an' it must 'a' be'n pretty late when I heard him get
up an' go out. I slipped down right after him, meanin' to foller him,
an' let myself out the back door so's he wouldn't see me. It had
stopped snowin' by then, but it was so cold that the air cut like a
knife and the only jacket I had wasn't any too warm fer such weather.

"When I got 'round the house Ol' Swallertail was standin' on the bank,
lookin' at the river. I never knew nobody to try the steppin'-stones in
winter, an' I s'posed o' course Gran'dad would take the path to the
bridge; but he went down the bank, wadin' through the snow, an' started
to cross over. The moon an' the snow made it light enough to see easy,
after you'd be'n out a few minutes. I watched him cross over an' climb
the bank an' make for the house, an' then I run down to the river
myself.

"The water covered all the stones, but I knew where they were as well
as Gran'dad did. I didn't like my job a bit, but I knew if I waited to
go roun' by the bridge that I'd be too late to see anything that
happened. So I screwed up courage an' started over. My legs ain't as
long as a grown-up's and at the third step I missed the stone an'
soused one leg in the water up to my knee. Gee! that was a cold one.
But I wouldn't give up, an' kep' on until jus' in the middle, where the
water were roarin' the worst, I slipped with both legs and went in to
my waist. That settled it for me. I thought I'd drown, for a minute,
but I went crazy with fear an' the next thing I knew I was standin' on
the bank where I'd come from an' the cold wind was freezin' a sheet of
ice on my legs an' body.

"There wasn't no time to lose. Whatever was happenin' over to the big
house didn't mean as much to me as death did, an' death was on my track
if I didn't get back home afore I froze stiff. I started to run. It
ain't far--look there, Josie, ye could almost make it in three jumps--
but I remember fallin' down half a dozen times in the snow, an' at the
last I crawled to the door on my hands an' knees an' had jus' strength
enough to rise up an' lift the latch.

"Gran'dad's awful stingy about burnin' wood, but I threw the chunks
into the stove till the old thing roared like a furnace an' when I'd
thawed out some I got off my shoes an' stockin's an' my wet dress an'
put another skirt on. Then I lay in Gran'dad's chair afore the fire an'
s