The boys walked in and out, and all around the fort, again and again, admiring its appearance, and thinking what else they could do.

“It wouldn’t be a bad plan to have a king, as Nathan said, in our castle; would it, Oliver?” said Rollo.

“Not at all,” said Oliver.  “Let us make a king, or a giant, to keep the premises for us, when we are away.”

So saying, they all set to work rolling snow-balls to make him.

Oliver rolled up a huge mass, for his body, larger than they could at first get through the doors.

Rollo rolled one for his head, and Nathan made several small ones.

In one corner of the inner room, they laid a small platform, of several square, flat blocks of snow, for a throne, as Rollo called it; and here they placed his “Majesty.”

“It seems to me,” said Oliver, “that the King of the Frozen Regions ought to have a crown and a court.”

No sooner said than done.  A little band of snow-balls, in double rows, soon encircled his brow, surmounted, too, with icicles and stalactites, which Nathan brought from the brook.

The opposite corners of the room were soon decorated with corresponding figures, whom Rollo introduced as Lord and Lady Frost.

He had scarcely pronounced the names, when Jonas walked in, to the surprise and great delight of the boys.

“Well done, boys,” said Jonas; “I think you have followed directions this time.  I give you credit for doing your work in a workmanlike manner.  But I can’t stay to talk with you about it now.  Your father, Oliver, wishes me to go out on the pond, and bring home the sled we left there, the other night, in the storm.  The wind has come out in the north-west, and there is every prospect of a bitter cold night.  It has begun to stiffen already, and, before morning, the sled may be locked up in solid ice.”

Jonas hurried away, and the boys, not a little disappointed, gathered all their implements together to return home.

“It will be a cold night; won’t it?” said Oliver, as he looked off to the north-west.  How fast it grows cold!  It freezes now.  I was in hopes we should have one more mild day.  But we can’t get a roof on after this.”

“Won’t it make good skating on the pond,” asked Rollo, “if the water freezes now?”

“Yes, indeed,” said Oliver.  “I shouldn’t be surprised if there was skating there to-night.  It’s only a thin sheet of water over the ice and snow.  Three or four hours of real cold will make ice enough for that.

“Come, Nathan, jump on the sled, and you shall have a ride.  Rollo and I will be your horses.  Mother will have supper ready by the time we get home.”

Nathan, glad of a ride, took his seat, and they were soon at the house.

Oliver took the snow-shovels and the other tools, and returned them to their proper places, and then drew up his sled into a corner of the wagon-house.