No sooner had Olaf entered the room where stood his Yule-tree than his
eyes lighted on a big package standing behind the tree. “Skis,” he
thought, “surely no other present could make such a huge package. But
was _his_ name on that package?”
Finally the moment came when his father called, “For Olaf,” and the big
box was in Olaf’s hands. Olaf lost no time in opening the prize package.
His eyes shone as he saw the new skis. At last he had a pair of skis fit
for any ski-jumper!
Olaf had often watched ski-jumpers leap in the air like a bird and land
safely on runners many feet away and go sliding gracefully down a steep
hillside. Now he too could learn to be a ski-jumper!
Like most children of Norway and Sweden, Olaf had learned to run on skis
when he was very young. By the time he had started to school, he could
run very well. On that Christmas morning, Olaf’s little sister, only
three years old, got a pair of skis too. Olaf gave her the first pair of
skis he had used and she played in the snow on them, while Olaf tried
his larger and finer pair.
[Illustration: OLAF’S LITTLE SISTER]
Skiing is the favorite play of the boys at Olaf’s school. Near the
school are skiing grounds where Olaf and his classmates play at recess
time. At first, of course, those boys ran on small hills. Then they
practised on longer slopes. Olaf’s father had said, “You must know how
to handle your skis well before you begin ski-jumping.” Now Olaf did
know how to run well on skis and he had the best kind of skis for
jumping.
Olaf lives in Norway and nowhere in the world do people have better
skiing grounds. The snows come in November and stay until March or
April, and the mountain slopes make long skiing tracks. The weather too
is good for skiing. Although the weather is cold enough to keep the snow
for many months, the cold is not severe enough to keep sport lovers
indoors.
Skiing is not merely a child’s sport in Norway. Olaf’s father and mother
both ski. Many business men and their wives ski; farmers and their wives
ski; the King and Queen ski. Norwegians and the Lapps of the far north
often travel on skis. Such travel is easy. With knapsacks filled with
food and strapped to their backs, travellers make long excursions in a
short time. So Olaf lives in a country which might truly be called, “the
home of the skis.”
[Illustration: IN BOTH NORWAY AND SWEDEN SCHOOL CHILDREN LEARN TO SKI]
The first Sunday after that Christmas when Olaf got his new skis, Olaf,
his father, and his mother went to a long skiing ground about a
five-mile ride from their home in Oslo. They left their home very early
in the morning. They stood in line with many other men, women, and
children waiting for the train. What a queer crowd it was! Sticking up
over each head were the points of skis which looked like stubby trees.
No wonder one passer-by said the sight was like “a forest of a thousand
trees.”
Then the train came with a special car to carry the skis, and the merry
crowd was off for the day. Olaf got his first lesson in ski-jumping.
But it was in February that Olaf got his greatest treat of the year.
Oslo is near the bottom of the long narrow country and on the side away
from the sea. The land around Oslo is hilly but the slopes are not very
steep. One mountain for skiing is about an hour’s ride on an electric
car from Oslo. On this mountain the youths of Norway gather in February
each year to hold a skiing contest. So in February Olaf and his parents
with thousands and thousands of people from all over countries of the
north went to see the ski-jumping contest.
The jumpers gathered at the top of the long mountainside. Each
contestant wore a number fastened across his chest telling his place in
the contest. At a signal from an officer number one ran down the hill to
a bank of snow called the “take-off” station. When he got to the
“take-off,” he jumped into the air. Olaf watched him breathlessly. Yes,
he landed on his feet. The crowd cheered heartily. An officer ran out
with a measuring rod to see how far he was from the “take-off” when he
landed on his feet again.
[Illustration: A SKI JUMPER]
Then the other jumpers came in turn. Several failed to land on their
feet. But most of them laughed with the people looking on over their
failures even though they must have hated badly to lose.
The longest jump that day, and the longest that had ever been made at
that time, was two hundred and thirty-five feet. That is a long jump,
but, no doubt, some of the schoolboys who were watching the jumpers will
beat that record in a few years. Some of Olaf’s playmates were able then
to jump eighty feet. They are eagerly waiting to be old enough to enter
the big contest.
The boys learned much by watching expert ski-jumpers. One of their
favorite jumpers is the King’s son, Prince Olaf. Prince Olaf was in the
big contest several times when he was a young man. The boys often saw
Prince Olaf on skis. One day the Prince stopped where Olaf and his
playmates were practising and told them how to hold their feet to make a
safe landing. Olaf never forgot what the Prince said. And he was glad
too that his mother had named him _Olaf_.