You remember I told you that Boy Blue lived on a big farm.
In the winter Boy Blue could not go to school because the school-house
was so far from his home.
So Mary's mother said, "Boy Blue can spend the winter with us and go to
school with Mary."
Of course the children thought that would be fine.
Mary didn't have any brothers or sisters, and sometimes she was rather
lonely.
So Boy Blue went to spend the winter with Mary.
He was sorry to leave Fire-cracker and his eight white Snowballs.
"I shall be back in the spring," he said. "John will have to take care
of you this winter."
Boy Blue had never seen such a large school in all his life.
In the little country school there were only ten children.
In Mary's school there were fifty boys and girls in one room, and there
were ten rooms in the school-house.
Now it was winter, and there was snow on the ground.
The children had been to school three months.
Every afternoon they had great fun coasting down the long hill behind
the school-house.