Hugh grinned and looked at the other children. “What else does a proper snowman need?”

“A hat!” one of the girls called, jumping to her feet. “I know where one is!” She dashed out of the room at a surprisingly breakneck pace.

“And a pipe!” Tommy added, darting over to a larger chair in a corner of the library. Or, rather, to the small table beside it, where a well worn, well loved pipe lay. He snatched it up and returned to them. “Come on, John. Clamp it between your teeth as Uncle Dough does.”

The children all laughed, and John obediently did so, his lips never once wrapping around the pipe.

“Come now,” Hugh said to the rest, gesturing to young John. “Can you not find some pretend stones for buttons or eyes?”

Their imaginations needed no further encouragement, and they began to find all sorts of imagined inanimate objects to use on their pretend snowman. Their cousin returned with someone’s top hat and propped it on John’s head, where it dwarfed the lad and nearly came down to his ears. He tilted his head back to be able to see the rest, giggling wildly now that his pipe was high in the air.

Hugh chuckled himself and let the children lead the way in the rest of the game, watching fondly as they pretended to build up snow around John to make him increase in size. Even Phoebe giggled incessantly, pretending to mound up armfuls of snow before dancing around in circles, imagining catching snowflakes on her tongue.

“What a mighty fine snowman,” Hugh commented after a time. “Shall we build another? What say you?”

The children cheered and John shook himself out of his costume, clearly eager for his turn at building a snowman now.

“Who should be the snowman?” Hugh asked, tapping a finger to his chin and looking around at the gathering. “Hmm.”

“You!” Phoebe suggested loudly, surprising him with the force of her answer.

He couldn’t manage to hide his shock. “Me?”

She nodded insistently, and the others joined their voices with hers. “Yes! Yes, Mr. Sterling!”

Strangely, Hugh was oddly pleased by the notion. Imagine being wanted by a group of people for anything pleasurable, even if they were all under the age of ten. He hadn’t known a feeling like that in some time, and the jolt of pleasure that hit his midsection seemed somehow both foreign and familiar.

He put his hands on his hips, frowning for effect. “But how will any of you reach high enough to do a proper job of it?”

The children looked at each other, frowning in thought, when Amelia suddenly moved to Hugh and tugged on his hand. “Sit down, Mr. Sterling.”

He looked at her in mock surprise. “Sit down? What for?”

The girl rolled her eyes dramatically. “You’ll be a sitting snowman, silly. Sit!”

Hugh did so without argument, and at once, the pipe was stuck between his teeth, his cravat tossed about his neck. The hat was tilted to one side atop his head, and a serious discussion on strategy commenced, the children tugging at his clothing and pretending to pile snow around his ankles. It was an impressive imagined endeavor, studiously giving the impression of his seated position. Faux buttons and facial features were laid out, though not placed on him yet.