ON SKATES
You have probably all seen pictures of regular snowshoes, even if you
have not seen real snowshoes, so you know how much like big lawn-tennis
rackets they look. Snowshoes are broad and flat, and fasten on outside
of one's regular shoes, so a person can walk on the soft snow, or on the
hard crust, without sinking down in.
The Indians used to make snowshoes by bending a frame of wood into
almost the shape of a tennis racket--except it had no long handle--and
then stretching pieces of the skins of animals across this.
"But I'm not going to make that kind," said Russ.
"What kind are you going to make?" asked Laddie as he watched his
brother.
"Oh, mine's going to be easier than that."
Russ took a long, thin barrel stave, that was curved up a little on
either end. To the middle of the stave he tacked some pieces of rope and
string.
"That's to tie the shoe to your foot," he explained to Laddie.
In a little while, with his brother's help, Russ had made four of the
barrel-stave snowshoes--a pair for himself and a pair for Laddie.
"Now all we have to do," said Russ, "is to tie 'em on and walk out on
the snow. We won't sink down in, as we do with our regular feet, and we
can go as fast as anything."
"Won't we fall?" asked Laddie.
"We'll hold on to the poles. That's what I got 'em for," said Russ.
In a short time he and his brother had fastened the barrel staves to
their shoes, winding and tying the cords and ropes, and even some old
straps around and around. Their feet looked very queer--almost like
those of some clown in the circus. But Laddie and Russ did not mind
that. They wanted to walk on the home-made snowshoes.
"Come on!" called Russ, as he shuffled across the barn floor toward the
door, from which led a big stretch of deep, white snow. "Come on,
Laddie!"
"I--I can't seem to walk," the little fellow said. "I keep stepping on
my feet all the while."
This was very true. As he took one step he would put the other snowshoe
down on the one he had moved last, and then he could not raise the
underneath foot.
"Spread your legs apart and sort of slide along," said Russ. "Then you
won't step on your own feet. Do it this way."
Russ separated one foot from the other as far as he could, and then he
shuffled along, not raising his feet. He found this the best way, and
soon he was at the barn door, with Laddie behind him.
"Come on now, we'll start and walk on the snow, and we'll s'prise Daddy
and Mother," cried Russ.
He did manage to glide over the snow, the broad, long barrel staves
keeping him from sinking in the soft drifts. Laddie did not do quite so
well, but he managed to get along.
The boys held long poles, which helped to keep them from falling over,
and, at first, so uneven was the walking that they might have fallen if
it had not been for the long staffs.
"I'll make snowshoes for all of us," said Russ, as he and Laddie went
slowly around the corner of the barn. "Then we can play Indians, and go
on a long walk and take our dinner and stay all day."
Together they walked around the barn. They were getting used to the
barrel-stave snowshoes now, and really did quite well on them. Of
course, now and then, one or the other's fastenings would become loose,
and they would have to stop and tie them. Laddie got so he could do this
for himself.
"It's like when your shoelace comes untied," he said. "Did the Indians'
laces come untied, Russ?"
"I guess so. But now come on. We'll go to the house and get some bread
and jam."
Russ and Laddie started out bravely enough, and they were half-way to
the house when Russ said:
"Oh, let's see if we can get across that big drift!"
This was a large pile of snow, made by the wind into a small hill, and
it must have been many feet deep--well over the heads of the two small
boys.
"Maybe we might get hurt there," said Laddie.
"No, we won't!" cried Russ. "Come on."
Russ was part way to the top when something happened. All at once one
leg sank away down, barrel-stave snowshoe and all, and a moment later he
was floundering in the snow, and crying:
"Hey, Laddie, I can't get out. I can't get out. Go and call Daddy or
Grandpa! I can't get out!"
"Are you hurt?" asked Laddie.
"No. But my foot is stuck away down under the snow, and I can't pull it
out."
"I'll go!" cried Laddie.
He never knew how fast he could travel on the home-made snowshoes until
he tried. Up to the side porch he shuffled, and, not stopping to
unfasten the pieces of barrel on his feet, he called out:
"Mother, come quick! Russ is upside down and he can't get his leg out!"
Inside the house Mother Bunker and Grandma Ford heard the queer
thumping sound on the porch.
"I wonder what that is?" said Grandma Ford.
"Maybe it's our friend that makes the queer noises, making a new one,"
answered Mrs. Bunker.
Then they heard Laddie calling:
"Oh, come quick! Russ is upside down and his leg is stuck and he can't
get it out! Oh, hurry, please!"
"Mercy me!" cried Mrs. Bunker. "Something has happened!"
Out of the door she rushed, with Grandma Ford after her, and when they
saw Laddie, with the barrel staves on his shoes, his mother asked:
"What has happened? What have you done to yourself? What are those
things on your feet?"
"Snowshoes that Russ made," was the answer. "He's got some on his own
feet, but he fell into a snow bank and he can't get out and he's
hollerin' like anything!"
"Oh, that's too bad!" cried Grandma Ford. "But if he fell into a snow
bank it's so soft he won't be hurt. But I'll get Grandpa to dig him
out."
But Daddy Bunker and Grandpa Ford had gone to town in the sled. But
Dick, the hired man, was at home, and he came to help Mother Bunker and
Grandma Ford.
"I'll get you out, Russ! Don't cry!" shouted Dick, as he ran up with his
long rubber boots on. These were so high that he could wade into almost
any snowdrift. "Don't cry, Russ!"
"I'm not cryin'," answered Laddie's brother. "I'm only hollerin' so
somebody'll come and get me. My foot's stuck!"
And that is just what had happened to him. He had stepped into a soft
part of the drift with one foot, and had nearly turned a somersault.
Then the long barrel stave, tied fast to his shoe, became caught
crossways under the hole in the snow, and Russ couldn't pull his foot
out.
He could not stand up, and so had to lie down, and one leg was out of
sight down in the hole.
"I'll soon have you out!" cried Dick.
He was as good as his word. Reaching down in, he loosened the
barrel-stave snowshoe from Russ's foot, and soon pulled the little boy
up straight. Then he carried him to the porch.
"I wouldn't go in deep places with those queer things on my feet any
more," said Grandma Ford.
"No, we won't," promised Russ.
So, when the snowshoe was again tied on his foot, he and Laddie shuffled
about where the snow was not too deep. They had lots of fun, and the
other little Bunkers came out to watch them. Mun Bun wanted a pair of
the barrel-stave snowshoes for himself, but his mother said he was too
little; but Russ made some for Rose and Vi.
Two days later, when the six little Bunkers got out of bed, they found
that the weather had turned warmer, and that it was raining.
"Oh, now the nice snow will be all gone!" cried Rose.
"And we can't make any more snow men and forts," added Russ.
"But you can have fun when it freezes," said his father.
"How?" asked Laddie.
"You can go skating," was the answer. "There is a pond not far from
Grandpa Ford's house, and when it freezes, as it will when the rain
stops, you and the others can go skating."
"I can skate a little," announced Russ.
"So can I," said Laddie. "Did we bring any skates?"
"Yes, we packed some from home," replied his mother.
"I want to skate!" exclaimed Mun Bun.
"You can have fun sliding, you and Margy," said Rose. "And I'll pull you
over the ice on a sled."
This satisfied the smaller children, and then, as the weather was so bad
that they could not go out and play, the six little Bunkers stayed in
the house and waited for the rain to be over and the ice to freeze.
They played around the house and up in the attic, and, now and then,
Russ and Rose found themselves listening for the queer noise. They
didn't call it the "ghost" any longer. It was just the "queer noise."
But they did not hear it, and they rather wanted to, for they thought
it would be fun to find out what caused it.
After two days of rain the snow was all gone. The ground was bleak and
bare, but the six little Bunkers did not mind that, for they were eager
for ice to freeze.
Then, one morning, Daddy Bunker called up the stairs:
"Come on out, everybody! The freeze has come! The pond is frozen over,
and we're all going skating!"
"Hurray!" cried Russ. "This will be more fun than snowshoes!"
Little did he guess what was going to happen.