If she could, Muriel Macfie preferred not to take the usual picture—of family members or friends lined up grinning before the camera. A teenager, she thought it would be much more fun to capture the ordinary stuff of life on the Macfie farm at Dunchurch, northeast of Parry Sound, Ontario, and send the prints (developed herself) to her three older brothers who were fighting in the Great War.

Who knows with what pleasure a picture like this would be received in the trenches of France, this evocation of pure joy on a winter afternoon in Canada. It is a setup, of course - of three siblings who have come a cropper exiting the barnyard on a winter snowshoe hike. Muriel spins on the rail; youngest brother, Norman, has already stumbled; sister Gladys is next. You can almost hear the laughter.

John Macfie, who submitted this photograph, is the nephew of Muriel, Gladys and Norman Macfie. He lives in Parry Sound, Ontario.