_I_ don't see anything green. All is white, as
far as I can see. The trees and bushes look as though they had
night-gowns and night-caps on. How pretty the snow is, how clean and
soft! I should like to run about in it, wouldn't you, Archie?"

"O yes, it's prime fun," replied the mischievous boy, "but it's no
rarity to me. I 'm used to it, you know. But _you_ would delight in
it, especially with bare feet. That way it is jolly, better than
wading in a brook. Suppose you try it, Peg?"

It required little urging to persuade the simple child to take off her
shoes and stockings and run down with her cousin to the great hall
door. She threw on her little cloak, for she said to herself, "The
wind may blow cold, for all the warm snow on the ground."

The children met no one on their way. Archie, with some difficulty,
opened the door, then said, "Now, Peg, run quick, away out into the
pretty snow, and see how nice it feels, just like down."

Meggie did as she was bid, and Archie slammed the door after her, and
bolted it, laughing uproariously. You may be sure the poor little girl
soon found how cruelly she had been hoaxed, and ran back again. She
knocked at the door, crying, "O Cousin Archie, do let me in! The snow
isn't nice at all; it's so cold it freezes my feet. Do, do let me in."

But Archie only laughed and danced like a young savage for a minute
longer, then seemed to be trying to open the door, and called out in
some trouble that he could not move the bolt. Little Meggie sat down
on the door-step and waited patiently till she was almost frozen. At
last, after getting nearly exhausted in tugging at the heavy bolt,
Archie succeeded in shoving it back. He found his little cousin so
benumbed that he was obliged to carry her in his arms all the way to
the nursery. Then he sat her down by the fire, chafed her hands and
feet, and put on her stockings and shoes, saying many times, "I am
sorry, Meggie, dear; I am so sorry!"

"O, never mind, it was only a joke," said Meggie, and tried to smile,
though she suffered a great deal more than Archie knew of.

But Meggie's troubles were only begun. When they went down to
breakfast, Mrs. Graham, who had seen from the parlor window the tracks
of little bare feet in the snow, questioned the children about them.
Meggie owned up at once that she had run out barefoot in the snow,
because it looked so soft and nice, but said not a word about Archie's
having prompted he