Jonas on a Farm in Winter Part 20

"I'll tell you what we might do," said Rollo. "We could make a part.i.tion through the middle, and put a roof over half of it."

"So we can," said Oliver. "We'll do that this afternoon. It's time to go to dinner now."

The boys then gathered all the tools, &c., and laid them together, as Jonas had taught them to do, when they finished work, and then started for home.

"Halloo, Franco," said Rollo, "are you here still?" They had been so busy at work, they had taken no notice of him. But Franco had watched their operations, and now went running on in the path before the boys, wagging his tail, as if he had as much pleasure as they, in contemplating the result of their morning's labor.

When Jonas came home to dinner, at noon, the boys were impatient to tell him what they had done.

But Jonas was too much engaged in some work about the new barn to listen to their story then. He told them, however, that he would go down about sunset, and look at their work, and hear the account, in the evening, of the experiment in doing work like workmen.

After dinner, Oliver was excused from many of his regular duties, on account of the visit of Rollo and Nathan; and the three boys hastened to return to their fort. They were so intent on finishing it, that they lost all interest in playing with Franco, or each other.

"What shall we call our fort?" said Oliver, as they walked along.

"We don't want any name, do we?" said Rollo.

"O, yes," said Oliver, "let us have a name. I always like to have a name. There's the old 'General,'--we have had many a good time with him; and my 'Conqueror,'--there isn't a boy in town that doesn't know my sled."

"We might call it 'Gibraltar,'" said Rollo.

"Yes, that's a good name," said Oliver. "How do you like 'Iceberg Castle'? Jonas was telling us all about the icebergs the other evening; and I read a story, about a famous 'Ice Palace' in Russia; how do you like that?"

"I don't like that," said Rollo. "Ours is a _fort_; it isn't a palace."

"If you are going to have it a palace," said Nathan, "whom will you have for a _king_?"

"You may be king, Nathan," said Rollo, "and we will soon demolish your palace, and make a prisoner of you."

"No, no," said Oliver, "the fort shall stand as long as ice will last. I mean to pour water all over it, and freeze it into solid ice; and I expect the last ice to be seen any where about next spring, will be the ruins of the old fort."

After some discussion, the boys agreed to call it "Iceberg Castle."

They then took a survey, inside and out, of their morning's work, and decided to proceed at once and build the part.i.tion which Rollo proposed before dinner. At Oliver's suggestion, Rollo was director.

For more than an hour they continued their toil, in constructing the part.i.tion. Jonas had given them no instructions about this; and they found it much more difficult than the walls, on account of the small, low door, which they had to make, to lead from one apartment into the other.

At last, as Oliver and Nathan were drawing through the outer door a small heap of loose snow, which they had gathered up from the floor of the inner room, Rollo followed them, shouting, as they emerged from the fort, "Done, boys, done!--Hurrah for Iceberg Castle!"

"I wish Jonas was here now," said Oliver; "but I suppose it will be two or three hours before he can come down."

"Can't we do something more?" said Rollo. "I wish we could put on a roof, before he comes."

"I don't believe we can do that," said Oliver.

The boys walked in and out, and all around the fort, again and again, admiring its appearance, and thinking what else they could do.

"It wouldn't be a bad plan to have a king, as Nathan said, in our castle; would it, Oliver?" said Rollo.

"Not at all," said Oliver. "Let us make a king, or a giant, to keep the premises for us, when we are away."

So saying, they all set to work rolling snow-b.a.l.l.s to make him.

Oliver rolled up a huge ma.s.s, for his body, larger than they could at first get through the doors.

Rollo rolled one for his head, and Nathan made several small ones.

In one corner of the inner room, they laid a small platform, of several square, flat blocks of snow, for a throne, as Rollo called it; and here they placed his "Majesty."

"It seems to me," said Oliver, "that the King of the Frozen Regions ought to have a crown and a court."

No sooner said than done. A little band of snow-b.a.l.l.s, in double rows, soon encircled his brow, surmounted, too, with icicles and stalact.i.tes, which Nathan brought from the brook.

The opposite corners of the room were soon decorated with corresponding figures, whom Rollo introduced as Lord and Lady Frost.

He had scarcely p.r.o.nounced the names, when Jonas walked in, to the surprise and great delight of the boys.

"Well done, boys," said Jonas; "I think you have followed directions this time. I give you credit for doing your work in a workmanlike manner. But I can't stay to talk with you about it now. Your father, Oliver, wishes me to go out on the pond, and bring home the sled we left there, the other night, in the storm. The wind has come out in the north-west, and there is every prospect of a bitter cold night. It has begun to stiffen already, and, before morning, the sled may be locked up in solid ice."

Jonas hurried away, and the boys, not a little disappointed, gathered all their implements together to return home.

"It _will_ be a cold night; won't it?" said Oliver, as he looked off to the north-west. How fast it grows cold! It freezes now. I was in hopes we should have one more mild day. But we can't get a roof on after this."

"Won't it make good skating on the pond," asked Rollo, "if the water freezes now?"

"Yes, indeed," said Oliver. "I shouldn't be surprised if there was skating there to-night. It's only a thin sheet of water over the ice and snow. Three or four hours of real cold will make ice enough for that.

"Come, Nathan, jump on the sled, and you shall have a ride. Rollo and I will be your horses. Mother will have supper ready by the time we get home."

Nathan, glad of a ride, took his seat, and they were soon at the house.

Oliver took the snow-shovels and the other tools, and returned them to their proper places, and then drew up his sled into a corner of the wagon-house.

After tea, Oliver and Rollo went out into the yard to feel the air, and judge of the impression the night would probably make upon "Iceberg Castle" and its inhabitants.

It was clear and cold. The stars twinkled brightly. The moon was not up.

"See there!" said Oliver; "I do believe they are building a fire down on the pond already. There'll be a skating party to-night, no doubt."

The boys returned to a cheerful room with a good fire, and were seated round the table, to amuse themselves for the evening. They pa.s.sed the time pleasantly until Jonas returned from the pond.

"O Jonas, Jonas," they all said, as he came in, "what made you stay so long?"

Jonas gave them an account of his adventures, and of his meeting a party of skaters, who were already on the pond, expecting to be joined, in the course of the evening, by a much larger number from the village.

After Jonas had taken his supper, the boys gathered around him to talk about their fort, every now and then running to the door or window, to see the fire on the pond.

Long before it went out, Oliver, Rollo, and Nathan, were in a sound sleep.