stant swishing sound again, like wind caught in the branches of some trees a long way off. And all the while the frogs kept up their monotonous croaking down at the mill pond, stopping all at once and then beginning again all together, as if at some given signal. His sister Louise joined him, and the two swung on the gate for a while, until they heard the voices of some children coming from the front of the shop. They rushed around to greet them. Pine Waka and his sister Agnes and one or two others from up at Reid's place came down the roadway cheerfully calling and waving. Nick decided that they must have split into two gangs this morning, some — the ones Nick heard calling earlier — going down the short cut past the Yates' house. The children greeted one another and the school-bound children went on their way, treading carefully down the frost-hardened road with their sore bare feet and their chilblains. Nick envied them as they continued on their way to school, for it seemed to him they knew so much more than he, and he ached for the time when it would be his turn and he would be one of those going to school. Not long after that the school bus came past and Nick and Louise watched the children waving at the windows. Some of them were shouting and pulling faces. They couldn't hear the noise and could see only the children's mouths opening and shutting. The bus roared on down the roadway bumping over the rutted surface. Close on its heels came Tommy and Margaret Brown, the children's cousins, who lived about five miles further up the road, galloping madly on their horses, yahooing, and trying to keep up with the bus. Margaret's hair was flying behind her. Now with the sun well clear of the pine trees that grew across the road from their house, and picking up intensity, flooding over the yard and orchard, everything began to thaw out after the heavy overnight frost. In the run the hens were wide awake and bustling about making a great racket. A hen was clucking furiously, announcing that she had just laid an egg. Slowly, with somewhat heavy hearts, the children turned to go back into the house.

WINTER The linoleum was cold when they stood on it, especially in winter, first thing in the morning when they got out of bed or last thing at night when they stood in their bare feet undressing. The bedroom floor was entirely covered with the smooth shiny polished linoleum which made the room so cold and miserable. The children wondered why adults put such a horrible thing on the floor. Sometimes they had a carpet in their room which their mother put by the bed and it was nice and warm, but it wasn't a very big carpet and they would all try to jam onto it at once to keep their feet off the cold floor. Invariably a struggle would ensue and Nick, being the smallest, would often find himself the one having to stand on the floor. On these occasions there would be much sulking and sometimes even tears, with his sisters giggling and telling him not to be such a sooky bubba. Sometimes though, they would feel sorry for him and relent and let him have a bit of room on the mat, squeezing up tight together to make room for him. But there were times, depending on how they felt towards him at that particular moment (he might have given them cheek earlier on), when Violet would allow him to put just the tips of his toes on the carpet, just enough to torture him, and make him behave himself in future. Yet there were other times also, when he was wild, that he was able to hold his own with his sisters and especially with Carolyn who would find herself coming out second best in the elbow-jolting and shoving that took place. But he was never able to depose Violet from the mat. She was too strong. Even when he and Carolyn sometimes ganged up on her, they were both liable to find themselves having to undress on the cold floor. But Violet, for all her superior strength was usually fairly