THE MACMILLAN COMPANY MACMILLAN & CO., LIMITED LONDON BOMBAY CALCUTTA THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD. TORONTO May ENTER JERRY CHAPTER I I T was bitterly cold weather, and the window panes I were so thick with frost that I could not watch through them for my father to come home to sup per. So my mother got a copper two-cent piece and showed me how to hold it against the glass until a fine, round peephole was melted through the fuzzy, white opacity. My breath soon froze this peephole over, and the copper quickly became too cold to melt the frost; but I could warm the coin to further efficacy by laying it on the ledge that ran around the bottom of the base-burner. And after a while I saw my father pushing the gate open, and I ran into the chilly front entry to meet him. His mustache was frosted, like the window panes. After he had taken off his cap and buffalo-skin overcoat, he came into the sitting room, where the baseburner was. And then he kissed my mother, but he wiped the frost from his mustache first, for her. He handed her the papers and things he had under his |
