What if we go up and get
seventy-five or a hundred, and take them along with the rest of our
load? They may sell pretty well. Listen: 'Witches' brooms for your
Christmas tree! Very sylvan! Very odd! Something new and unique! Only
fifty cents apiece! Buy a broom! Buy a witches' broom!'"
The girls laughed. "What a peddler you would make, Ad!" Ellen cried; and
we began to think that the venture might be worth trying.
It snowed hard that night, and instead of going up the stream on the ice
with two hand sleds, as we had at first planned, Addison and I set a
hayrack on two traverse sleds, and with two of the work-horses drove up
the winter road. Axes and ropes were taken, feed for the team, and food
enough for two days.
The sun had come out bright and warm; there was enough snow to make the
sleds run easily, and we got on well until past three in the afternoon,
when we were made aware of a very unusual change of temperature, for
Maine in December. It grew warm rapidly; clouds overspread the sky; a
thunderpeal rumbled suddenly. Within ten minutes a thundershower was
falling, and almost as if by magic, all that snow melted away. We were
left with our rack and traverse sleds, scraping and bumping over logs
and stones.
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