The Master's Christmas Tree [antikvár]

.m Oh, but the snow we had that winter — fluffy, huge, thick flakes of snow! There was so much of it that we had to dig pathways to get to the storehouse, the pig-sty and to the barn We'd dive out of our hallway into the snow — we were too small to go to school — and ran up and down those paths like between white, snowy walls — higher than our heads they were — there was so much snow! We'd run and run and then — jump! — we'd go headfirst into the drifts. What fun it was! Mother and Father weren't-sad or gloomy about it all because Grandmother said: "It's good, all this snow. There will be a fine harvest!" But we didn't need any such reassurance. We slid down the hillsides on our sleds, tied wooden boot-trees to our right boots and ran up and down the road, hopping along for all the world as if we were really on skates, made snowmen, had snowball fights. And when the older boys, once in a while, gave us a whirl in a roundabout, then our delight knew no bounds. What screaming and laughter! But do you know what a roundabout is? A roundabout is really very interesting and lots of fun. When the creek or pond freezes over so that one can safely walk on it, a stake is hammered into the ice. Then a wagon wheel is placed over the stake, to which a long pole, with a sled attached to its end, is tied. Then shorter poles are pushed between the spokes of the wheel and these are manned by the older boys to turn the wheel. The sled at the end of the long pole flies around the circle like a whirlwind. So when the older boys seat us smaller