Skating and Sliding Down Hill 253 



which invite their enterprise, and each one de 

 velops according to his genius. The solitary and 

 adventurous skater has almost as good an oppor 

 tunity for romancing as the fisher who loses the 

 biggest fish and brings home the littlest, -just to 

 show that he must have told the truth, since if the 

 big fellow had not got away, would he not have 

 brought that instead ? 



Skating stories are of many sorts ; an imagi 

 native lad can have many odd experiences in a ten- 

 mile expedition, what with thin ice and air holes. 

 For example, we recall the chap who dropped 

 into an air hole, floated down the river for half a 

 mile, now and then bumping his head against the 

 ice, until he reached another air hole and came 

 up all right. He certainly got wet, and he could 

 show the air holes, and would, to any one who 

 wanted to go over the course with him. Let not 

 that powerful skater be forgotten who came to 

 the verge of the mill-dam sooner than he had ex- 



o 



pected, when he was going about as fast as an ex 

 press train, he actually had raced half a mile on 

 the river with the iron horse on the rails, and as 

 he could not check his speed, he rose to the oc 

 casion in one mighty leap, landed like a bird ten 

 rods below the dam, and so easy that he never 

 felt the jar, and then just skimmed on as before, 

 for no little thing like that could faze him. No 



