“I don’t know,” wailed Ruth.  “My feet are cold.”

“Step on them and they won’t be,” said Sunny Boy kindly.  He meant that Ruth should walk or run a little and then her feet would be warmer.

“I don’t want to step on them!” Ruth cried.  She was very unhappy indeed.  “I want my sled.  I want to go home.  My feet are cold.”

“I’ll find your sled,” Sunny Boy promised, and he went up to the top of the hill.  After a little tramping around in the snow he found Ruth’s sled where she had left it.  No one had touched it.

Sunny Boy came running back to Nelson and Ruth, dragging the sled, and just as he came up to them he heard Ruth say:  “I’ll go home by myself, then.”

“You can’t!” scolded Nelson.  “Mother said you musn’t cross streets without me.  And I’m not going home as soon as I get here.  I want to coast.  You’ll have to wait till I’ve had some fun.”

Ruth was crying now and her little nose was red from the cold.  She looked so forlorn and uncomfortable that Sunny Boy’s kind heart felt sorry for her.  He was anxious to coast and he hated to go home before he had had any good times with his new sled, but he did not want Ruth to cry.

“I’ll go home with you,” he said.  “You sit on the sled and I’ll pull you."’

“Gee, will you take her home?” asked Nelson, in surprise.  “That’s great!  And then you can come back and we’ll have packs of fun.”

“All right,” said Sunny Boy, though he was quite sure he couldn’t come back.  It would be half-past eleven, he knew, before he could get home and leave Ruth and come back to Court Hill; and Mother had said he must stop coasting at half-past eleven.  So, you see, he was really very kind and good to take Ruth home and give up his own coasting fun to make her happier.

Ruth sat down on her sled and held fast to Sunny Boy’s sled, and he pulled her all the way home, though she was a fat little girl and pretty heavy for one boy to pull.  And as soon as they were home again and Ruth and her sled had gone into her house, Sunny Boy trotted around to the kitchen door of his house to ask Harriet what time it was.

“Half-past eleven, just,” answered Harriet.  “Did you have a good time?”

CHAPTER V

THE SNOW MAN

Poor Sunny Boy!  When Harriet said it was half-past eleven he felt like crying himself, though of course a boy six years old doesn’t cry about anything if he can help it.

“Did you have a good time coasting?” asked Harriet again.  She was getting lunch ready and Sunny Boy was sure he smelled chicken soup.

“I didn’t have any time,” he explained sadly.  “I tipped Ruth off the sled and then she wanted to come home and I had to come with her, ’cause her mother won’t let her cross streets all alone.”

“And I suppose Nelson wanted to stay and enjoy himself,” said Harriet.  “Well, never mind, Sunny Boy, next time you shall coast all morning, if I have to go along to see that no one bothers you.”