`` Cousin Eustace , '' said Sweet Fern , `` did the box hold all the trouble that has ever come into the world ? '' `` Every mite of it ! '' answered Eustace . `` This very snow-storm , which has spoiled my skating , was packed up there . '' `` And how big was the box ? '' asked Sweet Fern . `` Why , perhaps three feet long , '' said Eustace , `` two feet wide , and two feet and a half high . '' `` Ah , '' said the child , `` you are making fun of me , Cousin Eustace ! I know there is not trouble enough in the world to fill such a great box as that . As for the snow-storm , it is no trouble at all , but a pleasure ; so it could not have been in the box . '' `` Hear the child ! '' cried Primrose , with an air of superiority . `` How little he knows about the troubles of this world ! Poor fellow ! He will be wiser when he has seen as much of life as I have . '' So saying , she began to skip the rope . Meantime , the day was drawing towards its close . Out of doors the scene certainly looked dreary . There was a gray drift , far and wide , through the gathering twilight ; the earth was as pathless as the air ; and the bank of snow over the steps of the porch proved that nobody had entered or gone out for a good many hours past . Had there been only one child at the window of Tanglewood , gazing at this wintry prospect , it would perhaps have made him sad .
But half a dozen children together , though they can not quite turn the world into a paradise , may defy old Winter and all his storms XXXXX put them out of spirits .
about as at into of through to towards up with