"What?" asked Peter.
"Let's play Eskimos."
"How do you play it?" asked Peter.
"Well," said Polly, "first we must make a snow house. Then we can think
of other things to do."
"We can't," said Peter.
"Can't what?" asked Polly. "Can't think of things to do? I can, if you
can't."
"No," said Peter, "we can't make a snow house. We tried. It tumbled
down. Don't you remember?"
"I've thought how to do it, Peter. Come on. I will show you."
Polly took Peter to the great pile of snow by the side of the road.
"There is our house," she said. "It is all made for us."
"That isn't any house, Polly. I think I won't play with you to-day. You
tease me. I am going to see Tim. Good-by."
"O Peter! Wait, wait! I won't tease. I will tell you about it now. That
is our house really and truly. But it is just the outside.
"We must make a hole in the pile for a door. Then we must dig out the
inside. Can't we do that, Peter?"
Peter said, "Oh, yes. We can do that. I see about it now. I will help.
We can dig very well.
"We dug our cyclone hole last summer. Perhaps we shall find another box
with silver dollars in it."
"Perhaps we shall not, too," said Polly. "I don't expect to find things
in the snow. People hide their gold and silver in the ground.
"The ground does not melt. Snow does. So it would not hide their gold
and silver very long."
"Why doesn't the ground melt, Polly?"
"Well, I don't know. You ask father. Snow melts because it is made of
water."
"Butter melts, sugar melts," said Peter. "They are not made of water. I
wish to know why the ground does not melt, too. I wish to know now."
"Peter, can't you stop asking questions and go to work? See, first we
must dig a path here. Then we will begin our door."
It took a long time to dig the path. But at last it was finished. Then
they made a hole. It went straight into the side of the big snow pile.
That was for the door.
"Now we must hollow out a place," said Polly. "It will be our room. We
must make it large. We shall sleep there and eat there and live there.
That is the way the Eskimos do. I read it in a book at school."
"I'd rather live in a house," said Peter. "Let's live in the house and
play out here."
"Then we will," said Polly. "It would be cold here anyway. I should
think Eskimos would freeze in snow houses. But they do not."
The next day the children scraped out more snow, and the next and the
next. At last they had made quite a large room.
It was nearly round. The floor was packed hard. The white walls were
smooth. Polly could stand up straight in the middle.
Mother gave them an old rug for the floor.