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Winter came in like a
roaring bear. A storm lashed against the waves of the sea, throwing spray
high into the air. The wind swept across the land with ferociousness,
blowing loose objects around like feathers. Malcolm sat in the house,
curled up in front of the fire. He heard the windows rattle and the sleet
pound down on the top of the house. He listened to it drip from the
rooftop onto the ground. He was very glad he was in the house where he was
warm.
After a few hours the sun
went down. The wind died and instead of sleet, the snow started to fall.
The flakes were huge. All night long it came down. When Malcolm woke up
the next morning, he went outside and found everything carpeted in white
fluffy snow.
The sun was shining and the
sky was blue, though it was too cold to melt anything.
The snow was deep and
Malcolm had to leap, rather than run, as he went into the front garden.
Fiona, the collie, Paddy, the Irish setter, and Jock, the poodle, were all
outside playing in the snow. When they saw Malcolm, they came running into
his front garden. They were much bigger dogs than Malcolm and didn’t have
such a hard time running as he did. They ran around, chasing each other,
romping through the deep snow.
Malcolm had big white
chunks of frozen snow stuck to the bottom of his black fur. He found a
small pile of snow that was shaped like a ball so he pushed it with his
nose. When it got too big for him, Paddy took over. He rolled the ball
around in the snow until it was too heavy to roll any further. Fiona and
Jock made one too. They pushed them on top of each other and made a
snowman. Jock ran home and tore a scarf off the wash line. He wrapped it
around the snowman’s neck. Fiona snuck a pipe out of her house and stuck
it into the snowman’s mouth. Paddy put rocks in its head for eyes and a
nose. The four dogs ran around the snowman, playing and barking.
A tall tree grew to the
side of the garden. It had snow piled up on it. Paddy grabbed hold of the
branch and pulled it down to the ground. When he let it go, all the snow
flew up into the air and floated down on top of the other dogs. He did
this several times. Soon Jock, Fiona, and Malcolm were covered in snow.
Paddy had to nudge them free. They chased him into the back garden,
barking and yapping.
Angus MacScot watched the
dogs playing. He got his camera and took photographs of them. He laughed
when he saw Malcolm trying to run through the deep snow. Angus went into
the kitchen and cut up a big piece of roast beef. He was saving it for
dinner, but thought the dogs would enjoy it. He put it in four little
dishes and took them out into the back garden. "Here, Malcolm," he called.
Malcolm came running over, followed by the other three. They gobbled down
the roast beef and went back to play in the snow.
That night Malcolm sat in
front of the fire, warming himself. The snow that had stuck to his fur had
melted all over the carpet but the heat from the fire had dried it up. He
was thinking about the fun day he had with his friends. Just then Angus
brought in the photographs that he’d taken earlier that day. He showed
them to Malcolm. Malcolm barked happily as he looked at them. Angus put
one or two down on the floor for Malcolm to have to look at that night. He
stirred the fire, put on another log or two, gave Malcolm a pet and went
to bed. Malcolm looked at the photos, sighed, and fell fast asleep. |
