lake bears!" (It was rather a compliment to call it
a lake, it being only about twenty yards across and forty long.) "The
lake really bears!"

"Who says so?"

"Bill. Bill has been on it for an hour this morning, and has made us two
such beautiful slides, he says--an upslide and a down-slide. May we go
directly?"

The mother hesitated.

"You promised, you know," pleaded the children.

"Very well, then; only be careful."

"And may we slide all day long, and never come home for dinner or any
thing?"

"Yes, if you like. Only Gardener must go with you, and stay all day."

This they did not like at all; nor, when Gardener was spoken to, did he.

"You bothering children! I wish you may all get a good ducking in the
lake! Serve you right for making me lose a day's work, just to look
after you little monkeys. I've a great mind to tell your mother I won't
do it."

But he did not, being fond of his mistress. He was also fond of his
work, but he had no notion of play. I think the saying of, "All work and
no play makes Jack a dull boy," must have been applied to him, for
Gardener, whatever he had been as a boy, was certainly a dull and
melancholy man. The children used to say that if he and idle Bill could
have been kneaded into one, and baked in the oven--a very warm
oven--they would have come out rather a pleasant person.

As it was, Gardener was any thing but a pleasant person; above all, to
spend a long day with, and on the ice, where one needs all one's
cheerfulness and good-humor to bear pinched fingers and numbed toes, and
trips and tumbles, and various uncomfortablenesses.

"He'll growl at us all day long--he'll be a regular spoil-sport!"
lamented the children. "Oh! mother, mightn't we go alone?"

"No!" said the mother; and her "No" meant no, though she was always very
kind. They argued the point no more, but started off, rather
downhearted. But soon they regained their spirits, for it was a bright,
clear, frosty day--the sun shining, though not enough to melt the ice,
and just sufficient to lie like a thin sprinkling over the grass, and
turn the brown branches into white ones. The little people danced along
to keep themselves warm, carrying between them a basket which held their
lunch. A very harmless lunch it was--just a large brown loaf and a lump
of cheese, and a knife to cut it with. Tossing the basket about in their
fun, they managed to tumble the knife out, and were having a search for
it in the long