adventure; we then proceeded
homeward together, and were in time for Gram's Thanksgiving dinner at
three o'clock, for which it is needless to say that we brought large
appetites. But I recall that the pleasures of the table for me were
somewhat marred by my feet which continued to ache and burn painfully
for two or three hours.

There was a snowdrift six feet in depth before the farmhouse piazza. The
drifts indeed had so changed the appearance of things around the house
and yard that everything looked quite strange to me.

None of the guests, whom we had expected to dinner, came, on account of
the storm; but a rumor of our adventure at the logging-camp had spread
through the neighborhood; and at night, after the road had been "broken"
with oxen, sled and harrow, Ned Wilbur and his sisters, the Murch boys,
and also Tom and Catherine, called to pass the evening.

Perhaps the snow storm with its bewildering whiteness had turned our
heads a little. That, or something else, started us off, making rhymes.
After great efforts, amidst much laughter and profound knitting of
brows, we produced what, in the innocence of youth, we called a
poem!--an epic, on our adventure. I still preserve the old scrawl of it,
in several different youthful hands, on crumpled sheets of yellowed
paper. It has little value as poesy, but I would not part with it for
autograph copies of the masterpieces of Kipling, or Aldrich.

It must have been akin to snow-madness, for I remember that Thomas who
never attempted a line of poetry before, nor since, led off with the
following stanzas:--

"Four boys went off to look for sheep,
Co'day, co'day, co'nanny, co'nan.
And the trouble they had would make you weep,
Co'day, co'day, co'nanny, co'nan.

"They searched the pasture high and low,
Then to Dunham's Open they tried to go.
But the sky was dark and the wind did blow
And the woods was dim with whirling snow.

"They lost their way and got turned round,
Co'day, co'day, co'nanny co'nan.
It's a wonder now they ever were found.
Co'day, co'day, co'nanny, co'nan.

"The storm howled round them wild and drear.
Stoss Pond did then by chance appear.
They all declared 'twas 'mazing queer.
'We're lost,' said Captain Ad, 'I fear.'"

Then either Kate or Ellen put forth a fifth and sixth stanza:--

"But Halse espied an old log camp,
Co'day, co'day, co'nanny, co'nan.
And into it they a