CHAPTER XXXV.
A JANUARY THAW Just before school closed a disagreeable incident occurred.
It was one of the few times that the old Squire really reproved us sternly.

Often, of course, he had to caution us a little, or speak to us about our conduct; but he usually did it in an easy, tolerant way, ending with a laugh or a joke.

But that time he was in earnest.
He had come home that night just at dark from Three Rivers, in Canada, where he was engaged in a lumbering enterprise.

He had been gone a fortnight, and during his absence Addison, Halstead and I had been doing the farm chores.

The drive from the railway stations, on that bleak January afternoon had chilled the old gentleman, and he went directly into the sitting-room to get warm.