1 70 LETTERS TO MARCO xxvi 



skate from Oxford to Reading. This frost 

 happened most luckily during the Christmas 

 holidays, so that my boys got the full benefit 

 of it, skating nearly from morning to night. 

 I have not skated myself since I have been 

 married ; as you, I daresay, remember, I had 

 a nasty fall on the ice a short time before 

 that event, which laid me on my back for 

 three weeks ; but I brought out my tricycle 

 and had some delightful runs on the ice, 

 being able to go many miles. The ice at 

 the sides of the river grew enormously thick ; 

 every now and then, as the river rose or fell, 

 cracks opened along the banks and the sur- 

 face would get flooded ; as of course this 

 froze, the ice thickened above and below at 

 the same time in places the ice must have 

 been considerably over a foot in thickness. 

 At intervals of about twenty yards there were 

 large cracks which extended right across the 

 river ; a little water would ooze up through 

 these when they first occurred, and then 

 they froze again harder than ever ; they 



