belonged, she hopped into bed and was soon fast asleep.




CHAPTER VII


A SLEIGH-RIDE

The winter slipped away, and as Patty was a little girl who always looked
on the bright side of things, she really had very good times at Ville Rosa.

She became a favorite with the Elmbridge boys and girls, and her unfailing
good nature kept her from quarreling with her cousins though she was often
sorely tried by them.

Lessons were a very uncertain quantity. Sometimes there would be none at
all for a week or two weeks, and then perhaps school would keep regularly
for a few days, only to be followed by another interruption.

Patty found it only too easy to fall into these careless ways, and if she
had stayed all her life at Villa Rosa, I fear she would have become
indolent and selfish, for the rule of the whole household seemed to be
"Pleasure before Duty," and when that rule is followed it often happens
that the duties are not done at all.

In January, to Patty's great delight, there came a heavy snowstorm.

It made fine sleighing, for the roads were in just the right condition and