led. You ain't disposed to buy 'em, are you? Wal, as you be hard
fixed, I don't care if I lend 'em for a trifle. Quarter dollar, say.
That's dog-cheap--it's a rael ruination. Take it out in potash or maple
sugar next spring--eh? Is it five cents cash you named, Mister Holt?
Easy to see you never kep a backwoods store. Did anybody ever hear of
anythin' so onreasonable?'

To which offer he nevertheless acceded after some grumbling; and the
runners of the borrowed skates were fastened underneath the sled by Mr.
Holt's own hands and hammer. Next, that gentleman fixed a pole upright
in the midst, piling the planks from the sawmill close to it, edgeways
on both sides, and bracing it with a stay-rope to stem and stern. At the
top ran a horizontal stick to act as yard, and upon this he girt an old
blanket lent by Jackey Dubois, the corners of which were caught by cords
drawn taut and fastened to the balustrade afore-mentioned.

Sam Holt had in his own brain a strong dash of the daring and love of
adventure which tingles in the blood of youthful strength. He thoroughly
enjoyed this rigging of the ice-boat, because it was strange, and
paradoxical, and quite out of everyday ship-building. The breeze, become
stronger, was moaning in the tops of the forest as he finished; the
greyish haze had thickened into well-defined clouds creeping up the
sky, yet hardly near enough to account for one or two flakes that
came wandering down.

'Ye'll have a lively run to the Cedars, I guess,' prophesied Zack, as he
helped to pack in the last plank. 'An' the quicker the better, for the
weather looks kinder dirty. See if them runners ain't vallyable now; and
only five cents cash for the loan.' The queer little craft began to push
ahead slowly, her sail filling out somewhat, as the wind caught in it at
a curve of the shore.

Certainly the runners materially lessened the friction of the load
of timber on the ice. The skaters hardly felt the weight more than in
propelling the empty sledge. When they got upon the open surface of the
pond, they might expect aid from the steady swelling of the sail, now
fitful, as gusts swept down, snow-laden, from the tree-covered banks of
the stream. They hardly noticed the gradually increasing power of the
wind behind them; but the flakes in the air perceptibly thickened, even
before they had reached the pond.

'Now make a straight course across for the pine point yonder,' said Sam
Holt, as they passed in lee shel