e or two boards a little
longer than the sled, which he said were to make seats. He also had a
tinder-box, and some matches, to enable him to make a fire. When all
things were ready, the three children set out together.

Rollo drew the sled, with the boards, the basket, and some other things
upon it, all bound together securely with a cord. The load appeared to
be considerable in bulk, but it was not heavy, and Rollo drew it along
very easily. They were not obliged to confine themselves to the roads
and paths, for the snow was hard in every direction, and they could go
over the fields wherever they pleased. In one place, where the snow was
very deep on the side of a hill, they went right over the top of a stone
wall.

It was a cloudy day, but calm. This was favorable. The sky being
overcast, kept the sun from thawing the snow; but yet their father told
them that probably it would begin to grow soft before they came home,
and, if so, they would have to come home in a certain sled road, which
Jonas had made that winter by hauling wood. He advised them not to
encamp at any great distance from the sled road.

They came at last to a pleasant spot on the margin of a wood, near where
there was a spring. The rocks around the spring were all covered with
snow, and the little stream, which in summer flowed from the spring, was
frozen and buried up entirely out of sight. But the spring itself was
open, which Rollo said was very fortunate, as they might want some water
to drink.

Here they encamped. Rollo cut some stakes, which he drove down into the
snow, and contrived to make a rude sort of table with his boards. He
also cut a large number of hemlock branches, which Lucy and Nathan
dragged out and spread around the table for them to sit upon. Then
Rollo built a fire of sticks, which he gathered in the wood. The ground
was covered with snow, so that it would have been very difficult for him
to have found any sticks, were it not that some kinds of trees, in the
woods, have a great many small branches near the bottom, which are dead
and dry. These Rollo cut off, and Lucy and Nathan dragged them out, and
put them on the fire when he had kindled it. The fire was a little way
from the table, with the carpet of hemlock boughs between.

There was a high hill covered with snow at a little distance, and, after
they had eaten their luncheon, Rollo said,--

"O Lucy, we will play go up the mountains. There is a hill for us. That
shall