A REAL TOBOGGAN
"Let's have a race!" cried Ted, as soon as his skates were fastened on
his shoes, for as soon as breakfast was over the children had gone out
on the ice with their skates.
"All right!" shouted Tom, who was quite ready for this sort of fun. "I
can beat you, Ted Martin!"
"And I can beat you, Tom Taylor!" exclaimed Lola, his sister, who was a
very good skater.
"Oh, wouldn't it be fun if we two could beat them?" suggested Jan to
Lola.
"We'll try," was the answer.
Meanwhile, though Mary and Harry had put on their skates, they took no
part in this talk and stood about on the ice as if they hardly knew what
to do.
"Will you join in the race?" asked Lola of Mary. "We three girls against
the boys."
"I don't believe I can skate well enough to race," Mary answered, and
her brother joined in with:
"You see we never had much chance to skate, and about all we can do is
to move along in a straight line." He laughed good-naturedly over his
own lack of skill.
"Oh, that's all right!" cried Ted, in jolly fashion. "We won't have any
race then--that is, until after you two get more used to your skates."
"Oh, don't let us stop you from having fun!" exclaimed Mary.
"We can have just as much fun not racing. I don't care much for it,
anyhow, do you, Jan?" said Lola.
"No, indeed!" answered the Curlytop girl. Thus did they try to make Mary
and Harry feel happier, and they succeeded.
"I tell you what we can do," suggested Tom Taylor. "Ted and I can show
you a few easy tricks on skates, Harry, and Jan and Lola can do the same
with Mary."
"That will be fine!" exclaimed Harry. "Then, when we know more about it,
we can have a race."
So it was decided, and then and there began lessons for the two poor
children whom Uncle Toby had brought to Crystal Lake so they might have
a good time over the holidays. Harry and Mary were quick to learn, and
though it would be some time before they could beat any of the other
four children in a race, they did very well for beginners.
"See if you can do this!" cried Ted, after having shown Harry how to
"grind the bar" backward, a trick Harry soon learned.
"Watch me!" cried Ted, as he began doing what he called a grapevine
twist. To do it he darted farther out from shore than any of them had
yet gone, and just as he was dong some fancy skating there was a loud
booming, cracking sound that sent a shiver all through the ice on which
the others were standing.
"Oh, come! Come back!" cried Jan to her brother. "The ice is going to
break! We'll fall in!"
"That's right!" yelled Tom. "Come on back, Ted!"
Ted needed no urging, but skated as fast as he could toward shore,
whither the others were fleeing as fast as they could strike out on
their skates. They reached land safely, and, to their surprise, no big
cracks or holes appeared in the ice. It seemed as solid as ever.
"I wonder what made that?" asked Janet, whose heart was beating fast.
"The ice broke somewhere," declared Lola.
"We'd better not go on it any more," said Mary.
"Well go up and ask Uncle Toby about it," suggested Ted. "I don't want
to stop skating."
As the children were about to take off their skates to go back to the
cabin, Aunt Sallie was seen coming down, dragging Trouble on a sled.
There were patches of snow here and there so it was not hard to pull the
sled along. And Trouble was not very heavy.
"Oh, Aunt Sallie, you ought to hear the ice crack!" called the children
in a chorus.
"Is it dangerous?" asked Mary.
Uncle Toby came out of the bungalow and heard what was asked.
"That rumbling, cracking sound isn't anything dangerous," he said. "The
ice often does that, and often big cracks come in it out in the middle
of the lake. But it is thick enough, and it won't break through with
you or I shouldn't have let you go skating. But, even with all I have
said, don't go too far out."
The children felt safer, now that Uncle Toby had told them this, and Ted
again started to show Harry how to do a grapevine twist. Aunt Sallie
gave the sled and Trouble over in charge of the girls, and they skated
up and down pulling William to and fro, to his great delight.
The boys, now that Harry felt more at home on his skates, began to try
to outdo each other in tricks, and when Harry said he would be the
judge, Tom and Ted had a race, Ted winning.
Once Jan and Lola skated so fast, pretending they were a team of horses
pulling Trouble on his sled, that Jan stumbled and fell down, also
tripping Lola. The girls were not hurt, and they slid along over the ice
laughing. But the sled was upset, Trouble fell off, and though he was so
bundled up that he didn't get hurt, he began to cry.
"I guess we'd better take him in," suggested Jan. "He may be cold.
Anyhow, I've had enough skating."
"So have I," said Mary and Lola.
They went up to the cabin, taking Trouble with them. But the boys
remained on the ice a while longer, and Harry was rapidly becoming a
good skater.
The three lads did not take off their skates until it was time for
dinner, and after the meal they went back on the frozen lake again,
though the girls stayed in to play with their dolls.
"Make the most of your skating," said Uncle Toby, as he watched the
three lads circling around on the ice.
"Why?" asked Tom.
"Because I think we are going to have another storm," was the answer.
"It is going to snow, and then all the ice will be covered. Of course
you can scrape clean a small place, but it will be hard work. So get all
the skating you can while it's good."
This the boys did, that day and the next. But the following morning,
when they awakened and looked from the windows, they saw the ground
white with snow, and more flakes coming down.
"Hurray!" cried Tom. "Now we can have fun coasting!"
"And maybe we can make a toboggan slide!" added Ted.
"I've seen them," remarked Harry, "but I was never on one."
"We had a wooden one in our yard, but we had to put candle grease on our
sled runners first," Ted explained. "It would be great if we could make
a regular toboggan slide."
"Let's ask Uncle Toby," suggested Janet.
Uncle Toby laughed in jolly fashion as the Curlytops and their playmates
swarmed around him in the cozy cabin.
"A toboggan slide, eh?" he cried. "Well, I don't see why you can't have
one, and you don't need to build it of wood, either, for there's a good
hill not far away. But how would you like to coast on a regular toboggan
instead of your sleds?"
"Oh, could we?" shouted Ted.
"I guess so," was the answer. "There's a French Canadian who lives not
far away, and he has a big toboggan. We'll go over in the auto and see
if he'll let us take it. I used to have one out here, but I find that
it's broken."
"Oh, what fun we'll have!" sang Janet, and the others joined in the
chorus of joy.
It kept on snowing, but they could journey out in the big, closed
automobile even with the storm all about, and this they soon did.
"But if we get the toboggan how can we get it in here? There isn't much
room," remarked Ted, for the children and Uncle Toby almost filled the
big machine.
"Oh, we'll tie it on behind and pull it over," said Uncle Toby. "A
toboggan can go faster than any auto."
"I ride on it!" said Trouble, and the others laughed, for of course he
didn't know what he was talking about.
The road to the cabin of the French Canadian lumberman who owned the big
toboggan ran past the lonely shack where Uncle Toby had once stopped for
water and from which the strange man had run away. As they neared this
cabin again Ted asked:
"I wonder if that man is in there now?"
"I don't know," said Uncle Toby. "But I think I'll take a look. Jim
Nelson and I meant to do it before this, but we haven't had a chance. We
don't want any tramps living in our woods."
He stopped the machine near the cabin and got out. The boys wanted to
follow him, but he told them to remain with the girls.
"I'm just going to look in the window," said Uncle Toby.
He did this, first at the front windows, and evidently saw nothing, for
he soon went around to the rear. And suddenly the children in the
automobile heard shouting, and the shouts came from inside the cabin.
"Somebody's there!" cried Ted, starting to get out.
"You stay here!" cried Janet, catching her brother by the coat. "Uncle
Toby told you to stay here!"
As Ted sank back in his seat they could all hear Uncle Toby saying:
"Who are you? What are you doing in there?"
The man in the lonely cabin answered, but what he said the Curlytops and
their playmates could not tell. There was more shouting to and fro
between Uncle Toby and the unknown man, and then Mr. Bardeen came around
to the front of the cabin.
"Is he there? Who is he? What does he want?" The children quickly asked
these questions.
"Oh, he's just a tramp I guess," answered Uncle Toby. "I couldn't make
much out of him. But I'll tell Jim Nelson and some of the lumbermen, and
we'll see what he's doing there. He can't do much harm, for there isn't
anything of value in the old shack. But it's just as well not to have a
tramp in there."
Once again Uncle Toby started the machine, and soon they were at the
cabin of the French Canadian.
"Could we borrow your toboggan, Jules?" asked Uncle Toby.
"Oh, of a sure yes!" was the answer, Jules doing his best to speak what
to him was a new language. "I bring she out to you!"
He ran around to the back of his shack, and soon came into view again
with a real toboggan, at the sight of which the children set up a joyous
shout.