now-balls to make him.

Oliver rolled up a huge mass, for his body, larger than they could at
first get through the doors.

Rollo rolled one for his head, and Nathan made several small ones.

In one corner of the inner room, they laid a small platform, of several
square, flat blocks of snow, for a throne, as Rollo called it; and here
they placed his "Majesty."

"It seems to me," said Oliver, "that the King of the Frozen Regions
ought to have a crown and a court."

No sooner said than done. A little band of snow-balls, in double rows,
soon encircled his brow, surmounted, too, with icicles and stalactites,
which Nathan brought from the brook.

The opposite corners of the room were soon decorated with corresponding
figures, whom Rollo introduced as Lord and Lady Frost.

He had scarcely pronounced the names, when Jonas walked in, to the
surprise and great delight of the boys.

"Well done, boys," said Jonas; "I think you have followed directions
this time. I give you credit for doing your work in a workmanlike
manner. But I can't stay to talk with you about it now. Your father,
Oliver, wishes me to go out on the pond, and bring home the sled we left
there, the other night, in the storm. The wind has come out in the
north-west, and there is every prospect of a bitter cold night. It has
begun to stiffen already, and, before morning, the sled may be locked up
in solid ice."

Jonas hurried away, and the boys, not a little disappointed, gathered
all their implements together to return home.

"It _will_ be a cold night; won't it?" said Oliver, as he looked off to
the north-west. How fast it grows cold! It freezes now. I was in hopes
we should have one more mild day. But we can't get a roof on after
this."

"Won't it make good skating on the pond," asked Rollo, "if the water
freezes now?"

"Yes, indeed," said Oliver. "I shouldn't be surprised if there was
skating there to-night. It's only a thin sheet of water over the ice and
snow. Three or four hours of real cold will make ice enough for that.

"Come, Nathan, jump on the sled, and you shall have a ride. Rollo and I
will be your horses. Mother will have supper ready by the time we get
home."

Nathan, glad of a ride, took his seat, and they were soon at the house.

Oliver took the snow-shovels and the other tools, and returned them to
their proper places, and then drew up his sled into a corner of the
wagon-house.

After tea, Oliver and Rollo went out into the