the sun. The
girls drew long breaths of relief as they entered. Such a sharp change
from heat to cold is not quite safe, and I imagine Wealthy would
probably have had a word to say on the subject, had she spied them
going into the ice-house; but Wealthy happened to be looking another
way that afternoon, so she did not interfere; and as, strange to say,
it harmed nobody that time, we need not discuss the wisdom of the
proceeding, only don't any of you who read this go and sit in an
ice-house without getting leave from someone wiser than yourselves.

"Oh, this is delightful," said Romaine. "It's just like the North Pole
and the Arctic regions which Pa read about in the book. Don't you come
here sometimes and play shipwreck and polar bears, Eyebright? I should
think you would."

"We did once, but Harry Prime broke a butter-jar, and Wealthy was as
mad as hops, and said we must never play here again, and I must never
let another boy come into the ice-house. She didn't say we girls
mustn't come, though, and I'm glad she didn't; for it's lovely in hot
weather, I think."

"I wish _we_ had an ice-house," sighed Kitty Bury, "you do have such
lots of nice things, Eyebright, ice-houses and hay-lofts and a great
big garret, and a room to yourself; I wish I was an only child."

"I'd rather have some brothers and sisters than all the ice-houses in
creation," said Eyebright, who never had agreed with Kitty as to the
advantages of being 'only.' "It's a great deal nicer."

"That's because you don't know any thing about it. Brothers and
sisters are nice enough sometimes, but other times they're nothing but
a plague," snapped Kitty, who seemed out of sorts for some reason or
other; "you can't imagine what a bother Sarah Jane is to me. She's
always taking my things, and turning my drawers over, and tagging
round after me when I don't want her; and if I bolt the door, and try
to get a little peace and quiet, she comes and bangs, and says it's
her room too, and I've no business to lock her out; and then mother
takes her part, and it isn't nice a bit. I would a great deal rather
be an only child than have Sarah Jane."

"But don't you have splendid times at night and in the morning? I
always thought it must be so nice to wake up and find another girl
there ready to play and talk." Eyebright's tone was a little wistful.

"Well, it's nice _sometimes_," admitted Kitty.

Just then the door at the top of the ladder opened, and a fresh face