By and by the men and the big boys went with us down to the brook where we chopped holes in the ice to give the sheep and the cattle a chance to drink.

Then they looked at the horses.
"Peabody you mus' be gittin' rich," said Hiram Bentley.
"No I ain't.

I've had to give up here, but a little windfall come to us t'other day from an old uncle in Vermont.

It ain't nothin' to brag of, but it'll give us a start an' we thought that while we had the money we'd do somethin' that we've been wantin' to do for years an' years--give a Chris'mas--an' we've done it.

The money'll go some way an' we may never have another chance.