Part 22 (1/2)

Peggy looked thoughtful. ”Perhaps not exactly kind,” she said.

”Now, Peggy, I am going to let you sleep with me to-night,” said Mrs.

Owen.

”Truly mother,” said Peggy, with a radiant face.

”And now we will think out just how we can make Alice and Diana have a good time to-morrow,” Mrs. Owen went on. ”Suppose, while I am making cookies and biscuit for the flesh-and-blood members of the family, you make small ones for the dolls? I am sure that will delight the little mothers. To tell the truth, Peggy, I didn't like dolls a bit better than you do when I was a little girl. I liked playing around with my brother William and your father a great deal better.”

Peggy felt a little happier when Diana said, in a disappointed tone, ”Isn't Peggy going to sleep with us?”

”No,” said Alice; ”the dolls are going to sleep with us. Peggy doesn't care about dolls. I am going to have a real feast of dolls, for once in my life.”

”And I am going to sleep with mother,” said Peggy proudly.

”You are not!” said Alice, thinking Peggy was joking.

Peggy could hear the children's voices going on and on in the other room, as she lay in bed. It made her feel lonely. Her mother always sat up late, so she would not come to bed for a long time. She tried to amuse herself by seeing things on the wall, but this was no fun without Alice. The voices in the other room went on and on until Peggy grew drowsy, and at last, fell asleep.

She was waked up by the slamming of a blind. The wind had risen, and she felt the cold air blowing in at her window. She looked at the face of the illuminated clock, which stood at the side of her mother's bed, on a small table. The hands pointed to ten minutes past ten. Her mother would soon come upstairs. The wind was so cold she got up to shut the window, and her bare feet walked into a snowdrift. Yes, there was really quite a little mound of snow on the floor, for it had begun snowing fast just before supper. She stopped to brush it up, and then took the electric candle and went into the other room to see if there was any snow coming in there. But there was not, for the windows were not on the same side of the house. She could see by the light of her candle that the bed was, indeed, too full to have left any place for her. On the outer side of the white pillow lay Belle, her staring brown eyes wide open; and next her was Sally Waters, peacefully sleeping; and beyond her, the doll that was Diana's namesake. Then came Alice herself, fast asleep, her long, dark lashes against her cheek, and a happy look on her face.

Beyond her lay Peggy Owen Carter, also asleep; and next to Alice's namesake, and on the inner side of the bed and beyond her, lay Diana herself, fast asleep, with slightly parted lips.

”Well,” said Peggy, ”I never saw anything like that before. She has dolls on both sides of her. I guess she has a feast of dolls, for once in her life.”

Peggy hurried back to bed, for her feet were icy cold. She was still awake when her mother came upstairs.

”Mother, what do you think? I walked into a snowdrift,” said Peggy.

”What do you mean?” said her mother.

So Peggy told her all about it.

”You ought to have called me,” said Mrs. Owen.

”But it was such fun sweeping it up and throwing it out of the window.

We can't throw dust out of the window.”

When Peggy waked in the morning, the air was thick with snowflakes, and everything was heaped and piled high with snow. It seemed as if it would be impossible to get out to feed the hens, for not only was it very deep, but it was drifting with the wind.

”It is a real blizzard,” said Mrs. Owen. ”It is the worst storm we have had yet.”

”Oh, there is no going to school to-day, mother,” Alice said, dancing about the room in glee.

It was not often that Alice danced. She was a quiet child. Peggy caught Alice by the waist, and they both danced together, and then they each took one of Diana's hands and they all three danced in a strange dance that they made up as they went along. It was full of bobbing curtsies and racing and scampering about the room. They ended by coming up to Mrs. Owen and making more curtsies, just the number that Alice was years old.

”Madam, it is your daughter's birthday,” said Peggy. ”Madam, the Frost King has decided to celebrate it by his best blizzard. He has planned it so we can't go to school, and so Diana can make us a longer visit. All hail to the Frost King!”

”I wish the Frost King had planned it so we could get our milk this morning,” said Mrs. Owen; ”he didn't tell me he was planning the blizzard, and now I haven't a bit of milk in the house.”

”The Frost King says the water is all right for drinking,” said Peggy.