"Then where will we sleep when we go back?"
"I don't know. I understand from Shadow that the doctor was thinking of keeping the school closed until about the first of February."
"Say, that will give us quite a holiday!" exclaimed Dave.
"For which all of us will be profoundly sorry," responded Phil, making a sober face and winking one eye.
The girls greeted the newcomers with sincere pleasure.
"What a pity Belle Endicott isn't here," sighed Laura.
"So it is," answered Jessie. "We'll have to do what we can to make up for her absence."
Two days later it cleared off, and the young folks enjoyed a long sleigh-ride. Then they went skating, and on New Year's Eve attended a party given at Ben Basswood's house. Besides our friends, Ben had invited Sam Day and Buster Beggs, and also a number of girls; and all enjoyed themselves hugely until after midnight. When the clock struck twelve, the boys and girls went outside and tooted horns and rang a big dinner-bell, and wished each other and everybody else "A Happy New Year!"
The celebration on the front piazza was at its height when suddenly came a shower of snow-
