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. 



