"I don't know," said Amos; "the ground seems pretty well covered. If there is enough to make sledding, you are going after wood to-day." "And what are you going to do?" said Jonas. "I am going up among the pines to get out the barn frame, I believe." Here a door opened, and Oliver came in, followed by Josey shivering with the cold, and in great haste to get to the fire. "Didn't your father say," said Amos to Oliver, "that he was going with me to-day, to get out the timber for the barn frame?" "Yes," said Oliver, "he is going to build a great barn next summer. But I'm going up into the woods with Jonas, to haul wood. There's plenty of snow." "I'd go too," said Josey, "if it wasn't so cold." "It won't be cold in the woods," said Jonas. "There's no wind in the woods." While they had been talking thus, Jonas had got his lantern ready, and had gone to the door, and stood there a minute, ready to go out. "Jonas," said Josey, "are you going out into the barn?" "Yes," said Jonas. "Wait a minute, then, for me, just till I put on my other boot." Jonas waited a minute, according to Josey's request, and then they all went out together. They found the snow pretty deep, all over the yard, but they waded through it to the barn. They had to go through a gate, which led them into the barn-yard. From the barn-yard they entered the barn itself, by a small door near one corner. There were two great doors in the middle of the barn, made so large that, when they were opened, there was space enough for a large load of hay to go in. Opposite these doors there was a space floored over with plank, pretty wide, and extending through the barn to the back side. This was called the barn floor. On one side was a place divided off for stables for the horses, and on the other side was the _tie-up_, a place for the oxen and cows. There was also the bay, and the lofts for hay and grain; and at the end of the tie-up there was a door leading into a calf-pen, and thence, by a passage behind the calf-pen, to a work-shop and shed. The small door where the boys came in, led to a long and narrow passage, between the tie-up and the bay.