ell sideways into a soft drift. As he walked up
the Silvey steps, a snowball hit him on the leg, and another sped past
his nose. He turned to find Bill on the lawn with a snowball in one
hand.

"Surrender," came the call.

John dropped his shovel to the floor and seized a handful of snow.

"Going to fight or get snow jobs with me?" he asked, as he pounded the
mass into an uneven sphere.

For an answer, his chum dropped his missile and ran around to the back
yard, to reappear with his own shovel. He pointed down the street. Two
members of the unemployed were making the snow fly at the DuPree's with
an earnestness which boded ill for their youthful competitors.

"Let's try Southern Avenue," said John. "Perhaps there won't be anyone
there."

No sooner said than done. But as they rounded the corner, they found
that three of the "Jeffersons" had organized an expedition of their own
and were cleaning the walk and porch of the house nearest the corner.
Their leader motioned to Bill.

"Go on back home, or we'll smash your faces in."

John promptly stuck out his tongue. "They can't fight," he said
scornfully, "and two of 'em are 'fraid cats. Let's try the big yellow
house, Bill."

With a glance back at the foe, they ran up the steps and rang the bell
persistently until a becapped, flustered servant opened the door.

"Ask the missis if she wants the walk cleaned?" said Silvey, who usually
handled the negotiations for work.

Scraps of conversation floated down to the boys from the upper regions
whence the girl had disappeared with the message. Presently she came to
the head of the stairs and called down to them, "How much you want?"

Bill made a mental inventory of the appearance of the grounds as the
boys had approached the house. "Quarter," he said promptly.

"Missis, she say 'all right,'" said the maid.

The boys stamped out of the hallway and set to work with a will. Silvey
began at one end of the broad veranda floor, while John made the snow
fly from the railings and porch posts. Next came the steps, and the walk
leading down the lawn.

"This won't take long," said John optimistically.

He stooped to fix a shoelace which had become untied. Silvey yielded to
temptation and gave him a shove into the heaped snow, to have him rise
angrily and dig the half-thawed slush from between his neck and collar.
Then he sprang at his partner and they went sprawling again, but this
time, Bill was the underdog. The two boy