AND KAYAK 177 



where the drifting snow had filled the bed of 

 the stream, and this was the great sledding- 

 place. I watched them with a good deal of 

 trepidation as they careered down on little 

 wooden runners strapped to their feet- 

 miniature ski, whittled from a stick of the 

 family firewood but I never heard of an 

 accident. However fast they were going they 

 seemed able to dodge the lumps in the path, 

 and avoided collisions by twisting round in 

 a sharp curve. If they fell at all, they always 

 seemed to tumble into a snowdrift, and picked 

 themselves up and shook their shaggy heads, 

 and tramped up the hill again shouting with 

 laughter. Sometimes they tried the less excit 

 ing forms of tobogganing, dragging out little 

 sleds made for one, and built after the Eskimo 

 pattern with the cross-pieces bound with 

 thongs to the runners, and bumped madly 

 down the hill ; or a party of boys and girls 

 joined at one of the big travelling sleds, 

 yelling and laughing, and shoving one another 

 off into the snow ; but the boys preferred 

 their sliding shoes. 



Sometimes a man s first present to his little 

 son is a toy whip, with a lash five or six feet 

 long ; and children hardly out of their baby 

 hood crawl about the floor shouting at imaginary 

 dogs and dealing vicious smacks at them. 



M 



