FUN ON THE ICE
"Oh, the fight is going to start!" cried Nan, in high excitement. "See
them coming up the hill!"
"Will they shoot?" asked Flossie, just a bit nervously.
"Course they won't shoot," answered Freddie. "Can't shoot snowballs.
Ain't got no powder in."
The attacking party was still a good distance from the fort when those
inside let fly a volley of snowballs. But the snowballs did not reach
their mark, and still the others came up the hill.
"Now then, give it to them!" cried Bert, and let fly his first snowball,
which landed on the top of the fort's wall. Soon the air was full of
snowballs, flying one way and another. Many failed to do any damage, but
some went true, and soon Bert received a snowball full in the breast
and another in the shoulder. Then he slipped and fell and his own
snowballs were lost.
The attacking party got to within fifty feet of the fort, but then the
ammunition gave out and they were forced to retreat, which they did in
quick order.
"Hurrah! they can't take the fort!" cried those inside of the
stronghold, and blew their horns more wildly than ever. But their own
ammunition was low and they made other snowballs as quickly as they
could, using the pile of snow in the middle of the fort for that
purpose.
Back of the barn the attacking party held a consultation.
"I've got a plan," said a boy named Ned Brown. "Let us divide into two
parties and one move on the fort from the front and the other from the
back. Then, if they attack one party, the other party can sneak in and
climb over the fort wall and capture the flag."
"All right, let us do that," said Bert.
Waiting until each boy had a dozen or more snowballs, half of the
attacking force moved away along a fence until the rear of the fort was
gained. Then, with another cheer, all set out for the fort.
It was a grand rush and soon the air was once more filled with
snowballs, much to the delight of the spectators, who began to cheer
both sides.
"Oh, I hope they get into the fort this time," said Nan.
"I hope they don't," answered another girl, who had a brother in the
fort.
Inside the fort the boys were having rather a hard time of it. They were
close together, and a snowball coming over the walls was almost certain
to hit one or another. More than this, the pile of snow around the flag
was growing small, so that the flag was in great danger of toppling
over.
Up the two sides of the hill came the invaders, Bert leading the
detachment that was to attack the rear. He was hit again, but did not
falter, and a moment later found himself at the very wall.
"Get back there!" roared a boy from the fort and threw a large lump of
soft snow directly into his face. But Bert threw the lump back and the
boy slipped and fell flat. Then, amid a perfect shower of snowballs,
Bert and two other boys fairly tumbled into the fort.
"Defend the flag! Defend the flag!" was the rallying cry of the fort
defenders, and they gathered around the flag. The struggle was now a
hand-to-hand one, in which nothing but soft snow was used, and nearly
every boy had his face washed.
"Get back there!" roared Danny Rugg, who was close to the flag, but as
he spoke two boys shoved him down on his face in the snow, and the next
moment Bert and another boy of the invading party had the flag and was
carrying it away in triumph.
"The fort has fallen!" screamed Nan, and clapped her hands.
"Hurrah!" shouted Freddie. "The--the forters are beaten, aren't they?"
"Yes, Freddie."
A cheer was given for those who had captured the fort. Then some of the
boys began to dance on the top of the walls, and down they came, one
after another, until the fort was in ruins, and the great contest came
to an end.
"It was just splendid!" said Nan to Bert, on the way home. "Just like a
real battle."
"Only the band didn't play," put in Freddie disappointedly. "Real
soldiers have a band. They don't play fish-horns."
"Oh, Freddie!" cried Flossie. "They weren't fish-horns. They were
Christmas horns."
"It's all the same. I like a band, with a big, fat bass-drum."
"We'll have the band next time--just for your benefit, Freddie," said
Bert.
He was tired out and glad to rest when they got home. More than this,
some of the snow had gotten down his back, so he had to dry himself by
sitting with his back to the sitting-room heater.
"Danny Rugg was terribly angry that we captured the fort," said he. "He
is looking for the boys who threw him on his face."
"It served him right," answered Nan, remembering the trouble over the
broken show window.
The second fall of snow was followed by steady cold weather and it was
not long before the greater part of Lake Metoka was frozen over. As soon
as this happened nearly all of the boys and girls took to skating, so
that sledding and snowballing were, for the time being, forgotten.
Both Nan and Bert had new skates, given to them the Christmas before,
and each was impatient to go on the ice, but Mrs. Bobbsey held them back
until she thought it would be safe.
"You must not go too far from shore," said she. "I understand the ice in
the middle of the lake, and at the lower end, is not as firm as it might
be."
Freddie and Flossie wanted to watch the skating, and Nan took them to
their father's lumber yard. Here was a small office directly on the lake
front, where they could see much that was going on and still be under
the care of an old workman around the yards.
Nan could not skate very well, but Bert could get along nicely, and he
took hold of his twin sister's hand, and away they went gliding over the
smooth ice much to their combined delight.
"Some day I am going to learn how to do fancy skating," said Bert. "The
Dutch roll, and spread the eagle, and all that."
"There is Mr. Gifford," said Nan. "Let us watch him."
The gentleman mentioned was a fine skater and had once won a medal for
making fancy figures on the ice. They watched him for a long while and
so did many of the others present.
"It's beautiful to skate like that," cried Nan, when they skated away.
"It's just like knowing how to dance everything."
"Only better," said Bert, who did not care for dancing at all.
Presently Nan found some girls to skate with and then Bert went off
among the boys. The girls played tag and had great fun, shrieking at the
top of their lungs as first one was "it" and then another. It was hard
work for Nan to catch the older girls, who could skate better, but easy
enough to catch those of her own age and experience on the ice.
The boys played tag, too, and "snapped the whip," as it is termed. All
of the boys would join hands in a long line and then skate off as fast
as they could. Then the boy on one end, called the snapper, would stop
and pull the others around in a big curve. This would make the boys on
the end of the line skate very fast, and sometimes they would go down,
to roll over and over on the ice. Once Bert was at the end and down he
went, to slide a long distance, when he bumped into a gentleman who was
skating backwards and over went the man with a crash that could be heard
a long distance off.
"Hi! you young rascal!" roared the man, trying to scramble up. "What do
you mean by bowling me over like that?"
"Excuse me, but I didn't mean to do it," answered Bert, and lost no time
in getting out of the gentleman's way. The gentleman was very angry and
left the ice, grumbling loudly to himself.
Down near the lower end of Mr. Bobbsey's lumber yard some young men were
building an ice-boat. Bert and Charley Mason watched this work with
interest. "Let us make an ice-boat," said Charley. "I can get an old
bed-sheet for a sail, if you will get your father to give you the
lumber."
"I'll try," answered Bert, and it was agreed that the ice-boat should be
built during the following week, after school.