English girl at the same time and kissed her warmly.
"You're a dear!" repeated Ida.
"You're another!" cried Betty gaily. "Now come on! Maybe those boys will eat up all the dinner, and I am so hungry!"
One of the men arrived form Cliffdale during dinner with the mail and the information that another cold rain was falling and freezing to everything it touched.
"The whole country about here will be one glare of ice in the morning," said Mr. Canary. "You young folks will have all the sledding you care for, I fancy. I have seen the time when, after one of these ice storms, one might coast from here to Midway Junction on the railroad, and that's a matter of twenty miles."
"What a lark that would be," cried Tommy Tucker. "Some slide, eh, Bob?"
"How about walking back?" asked the other boy promptly, grinning.
Letters and papers were distributed. There was at least one letter for everybody but Ida, and Betty squeezed her hand under the table in a comforting way.
When they all retired from the table and gathered in groups in the big living room where the log fire roared Uncle Dick beckoned Betty to him. He put a letter from Mrs. Eustice into
