other winter and did not realize that the oldest inhabitant had not
known one like it, would return from an encounter with the snowflakes in
dazed wonder and take her seat on a chair in front of the kitchen stove,
or she would patiently watch by a mouse-hole for hours together.

The inhabitants of Hotel Hennery took life placidly, although they were
confined to the hotel. But, having nothing more interesting to do, they
turned their attention to laying eggs; after January set in, they all
began to lay, so that Mrs. Owen and the children each had a fresh egg
for breakfast most of the time.

The snow-storms grew more and more frequent as the winter passed, and
the snow was deeper and deeper. It was all great fun for Alice and
Peggy. They never tired of the coasting and the walk to and from school.
It was hard for Diana, however, for in stormy or very cold weather she
had to stay in the house. She was so much better after the summer that,
in the autumn, she began to go to school. Diana was in the same room
with Peggy, in the class below her. She had to be out of school almost
half the time.

"I wouldn't mind being out of school," said Alice. "Think of having no
lessons to get and staying in that lovely room with a wood fire on the
hearth, and everybody coming to see you."

"You wouldn't like it a bit if you didn't feel well," said Peggy. "Think
of not being able to go coasting."

The children went to see Diana almost every day, and there did not seem
to be any room quite so pleasant as Diana's room, with the fire on the
hearth and the blooming flowers.

Diana was often well enough to be downstairs in the parlor, and this was
a pleasant room, too. It seemed strange to the children to think it was
their own old parlor, for it was so differently arranged. There was a
large piano at which Diana practiced when she was well enough. It took
up the side of the room where their mother's writing-desk had been.
Their piano was an upright one, and it had been on the opposite side of
the room. Small as it was, it almost filled up one side of their tiny
parlor now. It had been used very little since it had gone to its new
surroundings, for there was no longer any money for music-lessons, and
Mrs. Owen had been too busy to touch it; besides, she had never played a
great deal, except the accompaniments for her husband's singing. So the
piano was resting. But Mrs. Owen had determined that, just as soon as
she had got ahead a little,