As they stepped out of the station it was like walking into fairy-land.
Snow, snow, everywhere--snow roads, with sleighs on them, drawn by
horses with jingling bells on their harness. Through the clear, still
blue night, shimmered and glittered a thousand little points of light
from the many, many windows of all the big hotels, and from the little
windows of the chalets, clinging to the hillside, or crowding down on
the edge of the great frozen lake. Above, the stars shone larger and
brighter than Harry had ever seen them before.
It was freezing hard, but somehow no one seemed to feel cold. Everybody
was dressed in woolly garments--white sweaters and coloured mufflers and
woolly caps. And everybody seemed to be laughing. Some were pulling
toboggans home, others carrying skates, or shouldering their skis. Harry
and his little sister began to laugh, too, and ran out on the snow. But
soon they fell down, and found out that they must be careful how they
walked until they had spiky nails fixed in their boots.
They were to stay in a lovely, big hotel, up the hill. Jumping into an
open sleigh, they drove briskly along, gliding smoothly over the snow,
their bells making a merry jingle on the frosty air.
That night they slept very soundly, and the next morning they hastened
to look out of the window. All was a dazzling white, and the sky was
bluer than they had imagined it could be. They dressed quickly in woolly
clothes, and put on rubber boots, called "gouties" to stop them
slipping; and as soon as they had breakfasted, they went out, and down
the little village street.
Tobogganing was the one thing in the world Harry wanted to do. He had
already made friends with some very nice boys at the Kulm Hotel, who
told him it was the best sport going. So his mother hired a toboggan for
him, and he went down to the village run, where he found his friends.
They soon showed him how to do it.
The run was like a long curly path, made of hard snow and ice, and very
steep. If you wanted to go really fast you took a run, pushed off your
toboggan with a final kick, and threw yourself flat on your tummy upon
it. As you rushed along you shouted to make everybody clear out of your
light.
Harry had a few falls at first, of course, and got a few scrapes and
bruises; but every day he would go at it, until, before long, he became
the fastest "rider" on the run, and people would clear out of his way
pretty quick when they heard him coming.
One day some men he knew at the hotel said he tobogganed so well that
they would take him with them on a real, proper toboggan run, all made
of ice, called the Dimson Run. Harry was delighted. Tobogganing, here,
really was some sport, and rather dangerous too, for the run was very
steep, and you went at a tremendous rate. Though he was the youngest
rider on the run, he won a silver cup in one of the races!