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The roof of the tall red-painted house was rounded with snow, and froreat icicles The front of the house was dark, but a sled-track went to the big barns and a path had been shoveled to the side door, and candle-light shone in the kitchen s

Alave the dinner-pail to Alice, and he went to the barns with Royal

There were three long, enorether, they were the finest barns in all that country

Almanzo went first into the Horse-Barn It faced the house, and it was one hundred feet long The horses’ row of box-stalls was in the middle; at one end was the calves’ shed, and beyond it the snug henhouse; at the other end was the Buggy House It was so large that two buggies and the sleigh could be driven into it, with plenty of room to unhitch the horses The horses went froain into the cold

The Big Barn began at the west end of the Horse-Barn, andBarn’s -Barn Floor Great doors opened onto it froons in On one side was the great hay-bay, fifty feet long and twenty feet wide, crammed full of hay to the peak of the roof far overhead

Beyond the Big-Barn Floor were fourteen stalls for the cows and oxen Beyond them was the machine-shed, and beyond it was the tool-shed There you turned the corner into the South Barn

In it was the feed-roo-pens, then the calf-pens, then the South-Barn Floor That was the threshing-floor It was even larger than the Big-Barn Floor, and the fanning-mill stood there

Beyond the South-Barn Floor was a shed for the young cattle, and beyond it was the sheepfold That was all of the South Barn

A tight board fence twelve feet high stood along the east side of the barnyard The three huge barns and the fence walled in the snug yard Winds howled and snow beat against theet in No matter how stormy the winter, there was hardly ever more than two feet of snow in the sheltered barnyard

When Alh the Horse-Barn’s little door He loved horses There they stood in their roo black manes and tails The wise, sedate work-horses placidly ether across the bars, they seeether Then softly their nostrils whooshed along one another’s necks; one pretended to bite, and they squealed and whirled and kicked in play The old horses turned their heads and looked like grand ones But the colts ran about excited, on their gangling legs, and stared and wondered

They all knew Almanzo Their ears pricked up and their eyes shone softly when they saw hierly and thrust their heads out to nuzzle at him Their noses, prickled with a few stiff hairs, were soft as velvet, and on their foreheads the short, fine hair was silky smooth Their necks arched proudly, firm and round, and the black e You could run your hand along those firm, curved necks, in the warmth under the mane

But Almanzo hardly dared to do it He was not allowed to touch the beautiful three-year-olds He could not go into their stalls, not even to clean the hors

es or the colts Father didn’t trust hi, unbroken horses are very easily spoiled

A boy who didn’t know any betterhorse, or tease it, or even strike it, and that would ruin it It would learn to bite and kick and hate people, and then it would never be a good horse

Almanzo did know better; he wouldn’t ever scare or hurt one of those beautiful colts He would always be quiet, and gentle, and patient; he wouldn’t startle a colt, or shout at it, not even if it stepped on his foot But Father wouldn’t believe this