Читать книгу Dew Drops, Vol. 37, No. 09, March 1, 1914 - Various - Страница 2

Bobby made the snow man. He had made snow men in the country, and he knew how. He always made them by the gate, next to the big syringa bush. He used to cut a stick from a tree for the snow man to hold, and he generally placed a long chicken feather in its cap.

But in a city yard that was not even all your own yard, it was different. Recently Bobby's father had come into town to live.

In the same street lived Joey Rodman, who was about Bobby's age. The afternoon that Bobby made the snow man Joey kept throwing stones. Bobby tried not to mind. There was lots of snow in the yard, and he made the snow man unusually large. The other children helped him, but Joey kept calling out and throwing things, and at last he knocked off the head of the snow man just as Bobby had put in two bits of coal for the eyes.

Bobby could not stand that. He ran after Joey, and Joey dodged and began to call him names. Joey's sister, Sadie, who cared for the six children, heard the noise in the yard below.

"Do you think it's your yard?" she called out to Bobby. "It is just as much Joey's yard as it is yours!"

Then Bobby's mother opened her window. "Come in, Bobby!" she said; and when Bobby left the snow man and climbed upstairs, she said, "Son, we mustn't quarrel with our neighbors, you know."

"But Joey threw stones—"

"Never mind," said mother. "We won't talk about that. Perhaps we'll get to be friends with Joey after a while. And you remember about coals of fire."

That was mother's rule. Bobby knew that text about coals of fire so well!

"But I don't see how you could ever make coals of fire out of a snow man, mother!" he said. And then mother laughed, and he laughed, too.

After a while, Joey and the other children ran out into the street to play. Bobby went down and finished the snow man with no one to trouble him. He put on the head again, and placed an old broom under its arm. He put it in very tight, so that no one could take it out easily.

Joey's sister, Sadie, was bringing things out to the roof of the two-story extension. It was a tin roof, and sloped a bit. Suddenly her foot slipped, and she lost her balance. She clutched at a clothesline, but it snapped. Down she came, and Bobby stood speechless with fright.

But the snow man—the heroic snow man—was there to save her. Standing firm and erect, he received the shock of Sadie's fall. It was too much for his head. He lost that first, and then, as he went all to pieces, he made a pillow for Sadie. Bobby ran forward.