At first Oisette was terribly shy about playing with them, but they were inclined to be friendly with her and even tried to talk in the French tongue with her, for their governess had told them to do so. When finally they saved a bone every day for Carleau, so that he spent most of his daylight hours in holding the fort for them, and when they begged Oisette to show them her turtle, she was won over. And after a week or so she boldly showed them how to improve their snow man by marking his face with lumps of charcoal for eyes, red flannel for lips, an old pipe stuck in his mouth, and a very battered old hat of her father's on his head, she became their strongest ally. In fact she received so much praise from the Dudley family that she became quite embarrassed. However, she learned to call them all by their baptismal names. Such good sturdy English names they were. The boy was George Howard Dudley, he being named for King George of England of course, and the elder girl was Alexandra May after the Dowager Queen and present queen of England, and the younger was called Victoria after her own grandmother, who, in her time, had been named after Queen Victoria, who reigned over the British Empire so many, many years. This younger little Dudley girl was always called "Queenie," which name Oisette thought was very beautiful indeed. One day they were all out toboganning together on the hillside when a funeral procession passed along the road below. As the hearse appeared in sight little Oisette stopped in her play and crossed herself; the others, after a moment, stopped their shrill screaming too, and waited respectfully. One of the children who was sliding on the hillside that morning was a little American cousin from Plattsburgh, New York; being a newcomer, she had never before seen a hearse just like this one. It was white all over, runners and body and harness, and on the four corners of this hearse were figures made in white plaster; these figures represented kneeling angels, and they had gold tipped wings and were holding long gold trumpets to their lips. In the center of the top of this vehicle was an upright gilt cross and from it floated long streamers of white, these flapped in the chill wind. Three sleigh loads of mourners followed, and though they had black crepe streamers tied to their fur caps, they did not appear mournful at all, for the men were smoking pipes and chatting together, and they all leaned out to look at the snow man which the children had constructed.