“I don’t like coal dust either,” returned the man, “but it can’t be helped. Well, what would you do?”

“If I were strong, I would make the largest snowman in the whole world!”

The coalman laughed as he went on with his shoveling.

“I am too busy to make snowmen,” he said. “I have a wife and four children to feed and clothe.”

Veve very much would have liked to talk longer with the coalman, but she knew the girls were waiting for her.

So, taking the pieces of coal, she ran back to the Williams’ yard.

“Why, Veve, you’re all covered with dirt!” exclaimed Connie, noticing a streak on the little girl’s face.

“I don’t care,” laughed Veve. “You should see the coalman. He’s a lot worse than I am!”

9 The girls used the pieces of coal to mark the snowman’s eyes, nose and mouth. Connie made a long row of black buttons down the front of the fat figure.

9

“That’s his coat,” she declared. “Now he’s finished!”

“Not yet,” insisted Veve. “He should have a hat and a pipe. Then he’ll look like a real man.”

“Where can we get them?” asked Sunny, stepping back to admire the snowman.

Connie knew that her father had a tall black silk hat which he never used, and she remembered a green plastic bubble pipe in the kitchen drawer.

“I’ll ask mother if we may use them,” she offered, and ran into the house.

Mrs. Williams gave her the bubble pipe, but hesitated when Connie asked if she might also have the black silk hat.

“Your father hasn’t used that hat in years, so I suppose he won’t mind,” she said, after thinking the matter over for a moment. “You’ll find it in the attic.”

Connie climbed the stairs to the cobwebby room under the roof. The place was cluttered with trunks, boxes, and old pieces of furniture. Everything was very dusty.

Opening one trunk after another, Connie finally10 found the tall black silk hat which had been wrapped in tissue paper. 

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