CHAPTER TWELVE.
THE GREAT SNOW-BALL FIGHT AT BRIENNE SCHOOL.
That Snow-ball Fight is now famous.

It was in the winter of 1783.
Snow fell heavily; drifts piled up in the schoolyard at Brienne.

The schoolboys marvelled and exclaimed; for such a snow-fall was rare in France.

Then they began to shiver and grumble.

They shivered at the cold, to which they were not accustomed; they grumbled at the snow which, by covering their playground, kept them from their usual out-of-door sports, and held them for a time prisoners within the dark schoolrooms.
Suddenly Napoleon had an inspiration.
"What is snow for, my brothers," he exclaimed, "if not to be used?
Let us use it.