One morning we awoke to a magical wonder world. The ground and every tree and blade of grass
were covered with thick ice. Marie gets
up early and goes out with the slop bucket.
One step out the back door and down she goes; the slop bucket goes up
and Marie goes down. Soon mother has her
soothed and clean and out we go again.
Since I’m the baby, they are all afraid that I’ll fall. So some one came up with the idea to sit me
in the dishpan. Now remember, we are
talking slick!
No one is able to stand for very long, and they are all
taking turns sliding me back and forth between them. But soon, I get away. Down the yard I go, spinning and twirling. I can see everyone trying to catch me as I
spin around and around. There up! There down!
Then I’m out of the yard and in the road, picking up even more speed, as
I come out of the yard and down the side of the bank. Zoom, down into the side ditch. People are reaching for me in all
directions. But I’m hanging onto the
edge of that dishpan. Up the side of the
ditch I go and then back down. Up the
other side, and then down again until finally I slow down and come to a
stop. The next thing I know everyone is
hugging and laughing as we slip and slide and even sometimes crawl on our way
back home.
Mother always played with us, just as we always worked
with her. At bedtime, we would jump into
those warm feather beds and pull those warm blankets up around our chins. Then, we would sleep like babies, with Old
John sleeping where he always did, next to the front door.
The next morning, Mother would get up early, and build a
fire in the stove located in the front room.
Soon, the house was warm and cozy with the smell of biscuits and cooking
rabbit coming from the kitchen. Some
times, there was no rabbit, but there always was breakfast. Even if it was water biscuits and water
gravy, we sat down and were thankful for what we had.
