COMMANDING AND OBEYING About an hour after breakfast, Jonas with the oxen, and Oliver and Josey with the horse, were slowly moving along up the road which led back from the pond towards the wood lot.

The wood lot was a portion of the forest, which had been reserved, to furnish a supply of wood for the winter fires.

The road followed for some distance the bank of the brook, which emptied into the pond at the place where Jonas and Oliver had cleared land, when Jonas first came to live on this farm.
It was a very pleasant road.

The brook was visible here and there through the bushes and trees on one side of it.

These bushes and trees were of course bare of leaves, excepting the evergreens, and they were loaded down with the snow.