Morey can look up the owners and settle for
it afterwards."
We strewed armfuls of the hay over the barn floor and let the hungry
creatures help themselves. Then we shut the barn doors and went to the
old house.
Every one knows what a cheerless, forbidding place a deserted house is
by night. The partly open door stuck fast; but we squeezed in, and
Addison struck a match. One low room occupied most of the interior;
there was a fireplace, but so much snow had come down the large chimney
that the prospect of having a fire there was poor. As in many old
farmhouses, there was a brick oven close beside the fireplace.
"Maybe we can light a fire in the oven," Addison said, and after
breaking up several old boards we did succeed in kindling a blaze there.
The dreary place was not a little enlivened by the firelight. We stood
before it, warmed our fingers and munched the cold meat, doughnuts and
cheese that the girls had put up for us.
But the smoke had disturbed a family of owls in the chimney. Their
dismal whooping and chortling, heard in the gloom of the night and the
storm, were uncanny to say the least. I wanted to go back to the barn,
with the sheep; but Addison was more matter-of-fact.
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