Bobby and the Big Road  by Maud Lindsay

The Visitor

O NE night when Bobby was fast asleep in his little white bed, and everybody else who lived by the road was asleep and dreaming, and there was nothing awake to see him but the stars in the sky, a visitor came to the Big Road.

He did not ride on horseback nor in a carriage, nor yet in an automobile. He had no feet so he could not walk. He had no wings so he could not fly; but there was no place on the road from beginning to end where he did not go.

He brought nothing with him, boxes or bags, trunks or chests. He had no tools, he had no hands; yet he was busy at work the long night through.

He did not make any noise. He was as quiet as the watching stars; yet there was nothing on the road that he did not touch.

In the morning, all the flowers that grew by the roadside drooped their heads, as if they were asleep. The morning-glory vines hung limp on the porch of the little brown house, and Mother's geranium that had bloomed so red in the dooryard only the day before, was crumpled and dark.

But out in the fields beyond the road and by the roadside, and in the yard the grasses and weeds and fallen leaves glistened and shone all silvery white. The Big Road was like a fairy land in the sunlight.

Father was astonished when he looked out and saw it early in the morning; and he made haste to call Bobby.

"Wake up, Bobby, wake up!" he said. "Jack Frost has come. Let's go and see if the brook is frozen over."