But the motorman and the conductor were in no such cheerful mood. They sat apart in a corner and talked in whispers; and Billy, listening although he did not mean to, soon learned that they were talking about the Snow Fairies. “It’s them,” said the conductor, “that spills snow all over the tracks and ties up the lines in winter.” “Sure it is!” said the motorman. “Let’s get off and fix ’em.” Billy glanced out of the window. There, right before his eyes, he saw a great number of little people, clad in white uniforms, raking huge masses of what seemed to be white flowers on the upper side of a cloud. Through the dim half-light he watched them working away, with rakes and pitchforks, some of them piling the white flakes into great stacks, while others pulled long rows of them to the edge of the cloud and pushed them over the side. Billy remembered that it was summer when he left home and he wondered how it happened that snow-making was going on; but following with his eyes the flakes that whirled downward he saw a long chain of mountains far below. He knew, of course, that snow fell on mountains, even in summer time, so he understood. “I tell you what I’ll do,” the motorman was saying; “I’ll go out and back her sideways and we’ll run through ’em. That’ll knock ’em all off the cloud, and we won’t have no more snow.” “Great idea,” said the conductor. “We’ll get ’em all at one lick.” Billy looked anxiously at Nimbus, who overheard, but only chuckled. “Let ’em try it,” he said, “and see what happens.” Nimbus joined Billy at the window, and the motorman and the conductor, seeing that the Fairy’s back was turned, got up very quietly and went out on the front platform. The motorman put his lever on the controller and, looking around carefully to make sure that he was not observed, reversed the power. The car trembled, stopped, then began to go backward with a sidelong motion that took it right into the snow cloud. Instantly the air grew cold, and the wind howled around the trolley pole and rattled the windows. Straight into a great pile of snow went the car, and the Snow Fairies, looking up, saw it coming and skipped away in every direction. There was a shock, snow flew in showers, then the car buried itself in a great white pile up to the window tops and stopped stock still. Stamping and pawing the snow out of their eyes and mouths, the motorman and conductor came back into the car. “Pleasant weather, gentlemen,” said Nimbus. “Looks a little like snow, however. Suppose you go out now and clear the track. You’re used to it.” Angry, but too much ashamed of themselves to show their feelings, the motorman and the conductor got shovels from under the seats and went out to clear away a path for the car. “It always pays best to let Nature take care of herself, as the boy said who sat on the volcano,” Nimbus observed. “It will be a dreadful delay, though, and we are in such a hurry to get to the Equator,” said Billy.