Two Brave Boys by Mary E. Ropes

IT was the month of January, and the keen Russian winter had wrapped / the woods and marshes in a snowy garment, and put the rivers in prison / behind thick panes of ice glass, and dressed up the tall pines and firs / till they looked like sheeted ghosts under the cold starlight.

But in Mr. John Oliver's roomy wooden house, standing on ground / somewhat raised, and overlooked by the huge chimneys of a big mineral / oil factory, was perfect warmth and comfort, for the great stoves built / into the walls of the room, and faced with white glazed tiles, kept the / whole place of an equal temperature.