THE first snow came, and the bitter cold. Every m Pa took his gun and his traps and was gone all day in the Big Woods, setting the small traps for muskrats and mink along the creeks, the middle-sized traps for foxes and wolves in the Woods. He set out the big bear traps hoping to get a fat bear before they all went into their dens for the winter.
One m he came back, took the horses and sled, and hurried away again. He had shot a bear. Laura and Mary jumped tip and down and clapped their hands, they were so glad. Mary shouted:
"I want the drumstick! I want the drumstick!
Mary did not know how big a bears drumstick is.
When Pa came back he had both a bear and a pig in the wagon. He had been going through the Woods, with a big bear trap in his hands and the gun on his shoulder, when he walked around a big piree covered with snow, and the bear was behind the tree.
The bear had just killed the pig and ig it up to eat it. Pa said the bear was standing up on its hind legs, holding the pig in its paws just as though they were hands.
Pa shot the bear, and there was no way of knowing where the pig came from nor whose pig it was.
"So I just brought home the ba," Pa said.
There lenty of fresh meat to last for a long time. The days and the nights were so cold that the pork in a box and the bear meat hanging itle shed outside the back door were solidly frozen and did not thaw.
When Ma wanted fresh meat for dinner Pa took the ax and cut off a k of frozen bear meat or pork. But the sausage balls, or the salt pork, or the smoked hams and the venison, Ma could get for herself from the shed or the attic.
The snow kept ing till it was drifted and banked against the house. In the ms the window panes were covered with frost iiful pictures of trees and flowers and fairies. Ma said that Jack Frost came in the night and made the pictures, while everyone was asleep. Laura thought that Jack Frost was a little man all snowy white, wearing a glittering white pointed cap and soft white knee--boots made of deer-skin. His coat was white and his mittens were white, and he did not carry a gun on his back, but in his hands he had shining sharp tools with which he carved the pictures.
Laura and Mary were allowed to take Mas thimble and made pretty patterns of circles in the frost on the glass. But they never spoiled the pictures that Jack Frost had made in the night.
When they put their mouths close to the pane and blew their breath on it, the white frost melted and ran in drops down the glass. Then they could see the drifts of snow outdoors and the great trees standing bare and black, making thin blue shadows on the white snow.
Laura and Mary helped Ma with the work.
Every m there were the dishes to wipe; Mary wiped more of them than Laura because she was bigger, but Laura always wiped carefully her own little cup and plate.
By the time the dishes were all wiped a away, the trundle bed was aired. Then, standing one on each side, Laura and Mary straightehe covers, tucked them in well at the foot and the sides, plumped up the pillout them in place. Then Ma pushed the trundle bed into its plader the big bed.
After this was done, Ma began the work that beloo that day. Each day had its own proper work. Ma used to say:
"Wash on Monday, Iron on Tuesday, Mend on Wednesday, on Thursday, on Friday, Bake on Saturday, Rest on Sunday.」
Laura liked the ing and the baking