BOY LIFE IN THE OPEN 233 



I took my skates along and after supper we came 

 down to the river and skated. The moon was full 

 and it was almost as light as day. I must have been 

 careless, for I skated too near an open place and 

 broke through. Jim was just behind me, and, be- 

 fore he could stop or change his course, he had 

 stubbed his toe on me and in he went, head first. 

 The water was shallow, so there was no danger, 

 but we had a mile to walk in our wet clothes, and 

 all the way up hill. I remember that our clothes 

 were frozen stiff when we reached Jim's house. 

 We built a roaring fire, stripped off our wet 

 clothes and put on some that were dry, and then 

 sat up until one o'clock eating chestnuts and pop- 

 corn and talking about what we would do when 

 we were men. Jim had an idea that he would be 

 a lawyer, but the last time I saw him he was sell- 

 ing tooth paste at the county fair. 



" In some ways spring in the country is not re- 

 markably attractive. The fields are brown and 

 bare and soggy, and the winds cannot fairly be 

 called zephyrs. As the frost leaves the ground the 

 roads become rivers of mud, and some of the " sink- 

 holes" seem bottomless. Early spring is easily 

 the most unlovely time of the year in the country, 

 but even then life has its brighter side. With the 

 first breath of the south wind the sap begins to 

 leave the roots of the hard maples and the sugar 

 season begins. 



