He could not believe that--really. Lettie Bronson might be thoughtless, and a little proud; but she was still a princess to Hiram, and he could not think this evil of her. But there were too many duties every day for the young farmer to give much thought to such problems. Harvesting was not complete yet, and soon flurries of snow began to drive across the fields and threaten the approach of winter. Finally the wind came out of the northwest for more than a day, and toward evening the flakes began to fall, faster and faster, thicker and thicker. “It's going to be a snowy night--a real baby blizzard,” declared Hiram, stamping his feet on the porch before coming into the warm kitchen with the milkpail. “Oh, dear! And I thought you'd go over to Pollock's with me to-night, Hi,” said Sister. “Mabel an' I are goin' to make our Christmas presents together, and she's expecting me.” “Shucks! 'Twon't be fit for a girl to go out if it snows,” said Mother Atterson. But Hiram saw that Sister was much disappointed, and he had tried to be kinder to her since that night of the corn husking. “What's a little snow?” he demanded, laughing. “Bundle up good, Sister, and I'll go over with you. I want to see Henry, anyway.” “Crazy young'uns,” observed Mother Atterson. But she made no real objection. Whatever Hiram said was right, in the old lady's eyes. They tramped through the snowy fields with a lantern, and found it half-knee deep in some drifts before they arrived at the Pollocks, short as had been the duration of the fall. But they were welcomed vociferously at the neighbor's; preparations were made for a long evening's fun; for with the snow coming down so steadily there would be little work done out of doors the following day, so the family need not seek their beds early. The Pollock children had made a good store of nuts, like the squirrels; and there was plenty of corn to pop, and molasses for candy, or corn-balls, and red apples to roast, and sweet cider from the casks in the cellar. The older girls retired to a corner of the wide hearth with their work-boxes, and Hiram and Henry worked out several problems regarding the latter's eleven-week course at the agricultural college, which would begin the following week; while the young ones played games until they fell fast asleep in odd corners of the big kitchen. It was nearly midnight, indeed, when Hiram and Sister started home. And it was still snowing, and snowing heavily. “We'll have to get all the plows out to-morrow morning!” Henry shouted after them from the porch. And it was no easy matter to wade home through the heavy drifts. “I never could have done it without you, Hi,” declared the girl, when she finally floundered onto the Atterson porch, panting and laughing. “I'll take a look around the barns before I come in,” remarked the careful young farmer.