Peggy looked thoughtful. "Perhaps not exactly kind," she said.

"Now, Peggy, I am going to let you sleep with me to-night," said Mrs.

Owen.

"Truly mother," said Peggy, with a radiant face.

"And now we will think out just how we can make Alice and Diana have a good time to-morrow," Mrs. Owen went on. "Suppose, while I am making cookies and biscuit for the flesh-and-blood members of the family, you make small ones for the dolls? I am sure that will delight the little mothers. To tell the truth, Peggy, I didn't like dolls a bit better than you do when I was a little girl. I liked playing around with my brother William and your father a great deal better."

Peggy felt a little happier when Diana said, in a disappointed tone, "Isn't Peggy going to sleep with us?"

"No," said Alice; "the dolls are going to sleep with us. Peggy doesn't care about dolls. I am going to have a real feast of dolls, for once in my life."

"And I am going to sleep with mother," said Peggy proudly.

"You are not!" said Alice, thinking Peggy was joking.

Peggy could hear the children's voices going on and on in the other room, as she lay in bed. It made her feel lonely. Her mother always sat up late, so she would not come to bed for a long time. She tried to amuse herself by seeing things on the wall, but this was no fun without Alice. The voices in the other room went on and on until Peggy grew drowsy, and at last, fell asleep.

She was waked up by the slamming of a blind. The wind had risen, and she felt the cold air blowing in at her window. She looked at the face of the illuminated clock, which stood at the side of her mother's bed, on a small table. The hands pointed to ten minutes past ten. Her mother would soon come upstairs. The wind was so cold she got up to shut the window, and her bare feet walked into a snowdrift. Yes, there was really quite a little mound of snow on the floor, for it had begun snowing fast just before supper. She stopped to brush it up, and then took the electric candle and went into the other room to see if there was any snow coming in there. But there was not, for the windows were not on the same side of the house. She could see by the light of her candle that the bed was, indeed, too full to have left any place for her. On the outer side of the white pillow lay Belle, her staring brown eyes wide open; and next her was Sally Waters, peacefully sleeping; and beyond her, the doll that was Diana's namesake. Then came Alice herself, fast asleep, her long, dark lashes against her cheek, and a happy look on her face.

Beyond her lay Peggy Owen Carter, also asleep; and next to Alice's namesake, and on the inner side of the bed and beyond her, lay Diana herself, fast asleep, with slightly parted lips.

"Well," said Peggy, "I never saw anything like that before. She has dolls on both sides of her. I guess she has a feast of dolls, for once in her life."

Peggy hurried back to bed, for her feet were icy cold. She was still awake when her mother came upstairs.

"Mother, what do you think? I walked into a snowdrift," said Peggy.

"What do you mean?" said her mother.

So Peggy told her all about it.

"You ought to have called me," said Mrs. Owen.

"But it was such fun sweeping it up and throwing it out of the window.

We can't throw dust out of the window."

When Peggy waked in the morning, the air was thick with snowflakes, and everything was heaped and piled high with snow. It seemed as if it would be impossible to get out to feed the hens, for not only was it very deep, but it was drifting with the wind.

"It is a real blizzard," said Mrs. Owen. "It is the worst storm we have had yet."

"Oh, there is no going to school to-day, mother," Alice said, dancing about the room in glee.

It was not often that Alice danced. She was a quiet child. Peggy caught Alice by the waist, and they both danced together, and then they each took one of Diana's hands and they all three danced in a strange dance that they made up as they went along. It was full of bobbing curtsies and racing and scampering about the room. They ended by coming up to Mrs. Owen and making more curtsies, just the number that Alice was years old.

"Madam, it is your daughter's birthday," said Peggy. "Madam, the Frost King has decided to celebrate it by his best blizzard. He has planned it so we can't go to school, and so Diana can make us a longer visit. All hail to the Frost King!"

"I wish the Frost King had planned it so we could get our milk this morning," said Mrs. Owen; "he didn't tell me he was planning the blizzard, and now I haven't a bit of milk in the house."

"The Frost King says the water is all right for drinking," said Peggy.

"He says it is so cold it doesn't have to be put on ice."

The children had a merry time eating their breakfast, although even Peggy's fertile imagination could think of no way by which the Frost King could make oatmeal taste well without milk.

Suddenly Mrs. Owen had a bright idea. "We can have maple syrup on our oatmeal," she said.

This was, indeed, a treat, and so were the eggs the Rhode Island family had laid, and there was delicious toast and b.u.t.ter, and oranges, as an especial birthday treat.

"I am afraid old Michael won't be able to come and shovel us out, on account of his rheumatism," said Mrs. Owen.

Peggy and Alice put on their raincoats and rubber boots and stocking caps, and they took their snow-shovels and tried to make a path to the hen-house. Diana watched them, with her face close to the kitchen window. Peggy stopped to wave to Diana, and lost her footing, tumbling down into the snow. She got up, shaking herself and laughing heartily.

Diana watched the children as their eyes grew brighter and their cheeks redder and redder with their exercise. The snow powdered them over with flakes from head to foot. It was impossible to make a good path, for the wind kept blowing the snow back, but they made enough headway so they could get out to Hotel Hennery. They came back to the house for food for its hungry inhabitants. There were others to be fed--blue jays, chickadees, sparrows, and crows; and then a flock of pheasants. And there was Lady Janet. She could not understand why there was no milk in her saucer and looked at them with beseeching eyes.

As the long morning pa.s.sed, and Peggy and Mrs. Owen were busy in the kitchen, making the large biscuits and cookies, and the small ones, even Alice had begun to get tired of playing with dolls.

"Can't we come out in the kitchen and help you?" she asked.

"No, I don't need your help."

"Can't Peggy come in and play games with us?"

"No, Peggy is helping me."

"I am very busy," said Peggy. "You can play games by yourselves."

Then Alice realized how flat every game seemed without Peggy. It was all right so long as they were playing dolls, but one could not play dolls all day. The geography game would be a pleasant change. Alice proposed having an afternoon tea for the dolls, and Diana agreed, although it did not seem quite a suitable hour for it in the middle of the morning.

"I wish mother would let us go out into the kitchen and help her," Alice said.

They had had too much play, and this was the truth. A little real work would have been interesting.

"I guess they are making some kind of a surprise for your birthday dinner," said Diana.

And when dinner came, and they saw the big biscuits and the little ones, and large cookies with caraway seeds in them, and the small ones, they were perfectly delighted.

The dolls were all allowed to come to the table with them, and, as there were four people and five dolls, each doll was well looked after. Alice had two on one side of her and one on the other. It was a merry meal; Peggy, having made up her mind to play dolls, did it thoroughly. She answered for the dolls in a different voice for each. Her namesake, Peggy Owen Carter, who sat beside her, ate so much her little mother had to reprove her.

"My dear child, you mustn't be so greedy," said Diana. "I should think you had never tasted lamb stew before."

"I haven't," said Peggy Owen Carter, in a shrill, high-pitched voice that made the children laugh. "We only have such things as legs of lamb and roast beef and turkey and broiled chickens at our house."

"Oh, please, can't we help to do the dishes?" Diana asked, when the lively meal was over.

"Yes, you and Alice can do the dishes inside while Peggy helps me in the kitchen with the pots and pans."

"Can't Peggy help us?" Alice asked.

She had learned the value of Peggy. Everything was so much more exciting when she was around.