28 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
[January. 
ON THE POND IN WINTER. 
1 Every season of the year brings its peculiar pleasures 
Aid pastimes, and none has a longer and better list than 
winter. It is not necessary for me to say to the boys and 
girls that ice furnishes fun “for the million,” just be¬ 
cause it is so smooth and slippery—if it were sticky as 
mud or dough, then half the joys of the out-of-door sport 
of winter would all be spoiled. How splendid it is that 
when the water gets to a certain coldness it passes into 
that beautiful, solid, crystalline form which we know as 
ice 1 and then the feet are shod with narrow strips of 
steel, and away go the happy skaters for a race. That 
boy or girl who has not lived where ponds and rivers, 
lakes and mill-ponds, “ freeze over,” or living there, has 
not joined in the fun of a skating party, does not know 
how near the expert, easy, graceful skater comes to the 
joy of a fast-flying bird. The ajtist has given you a scene 
upon the ice that none can fail to appreciate. The smal 1 boy 
with his old “ swan-neck ” skates and awkward strides; 
the graceful older brother and sister, or friend, with bet¬ 
ter skates and greater skill, the patient adjustment of the 
straps, etc., are all shown to life; but there is one thing 
which, though just as natural as all these, has been left 
out, and well it may—the fall 1 How it hurts to hf.ve thi 
feet move on much faster than the head, until—aud it 
don’t take long—the stars shine with a peculiar lustre 
and one looks to see if he is out of sight. Again, the 
skating may be attempted before the ice is ready, and the 
bold and fearless youth often finds himself a wetter if not 
a wiser boy. If the pond is shallow, and the bottom soft 
and muddy, why 1 it is not so very dangerous ; but then 
it is, to say the least, provoking. But what would skat¬ 
ing be without a fall, a bump—a regular thump —and a 
little danger now and then 1 Uncle Hal. 
