ly skating on Norway Pond, and both Nan and her chum, Bess
Harley, were devoted to the sport. Nan had been unable to be on the ice
Saturdays, because of her home tasks; but when her lessons were learned,
she was allowed to go after supper.

It happened to be just at the dark of the moon this week; that kept many
off the ice, although the weather was settled and the ice was perfectly
safe. Sometimes the boys built a bonfire on Woody Point, with refuse
from the planing mill, and that lit up a good bit of the ice.

But once out on the pond, away from the shadows cast by the high banks,
the girls could see well enough. They were both good skaters, and with
arms crossed and hands clasped, they swung up the middle of the pond in
fine style.

"I just love to skate with you, Nan," sighed Bess ecstatically. "You
move just like my other self. We're Siamese twins. We strike out
together perfectly. Oh, my dear! I don't see whatever I am to do if you
refuse to go to Lakeview with me."

Nan could scarcely keep from telling Bess of the wonderful new fortune
that seemed about to come to her; but she was faithful to her home
training, and only said:

"Don't fret about it, honey. Maybe something will turn up to let me go."

"If you'd let my father pay your way-----?" insinuated Bess.

"Don't talk of that. It's impossible," said Nan decisively. "It's a long
time yet to fall. Maybe conditions will be different at home. A dozen
things may happen before school opens in September."

"Yes! But they may not be the right things," sighed Bess.

She could not be too melancholy on such a night as this, however. It was
perfectly quiet, and the arch of the sky was like black velvet pricked
out with gold and silver stars. Their soft radiance shed some light upon
the pond, enough, at least, to show the girl chums the way before them
as they skimmed on toward Powerton Landing.

They had left a noisy crowd of boys behind them, near the stamp Factory,
mostly mill boys, and the like. Bess had been taught at home to shrink
from association with the mill people and that is why she had urged Nan
to take this long skate up the pond. Around the Tillbury end of it they
were always falling in with little groups of mill boys and girls whom
Bess did not care to meet.

There was another reason this evening for keeping away from the stamp
factory, too. The manager of that big shop had hired a gang of ice
cutters a few days before, and had filled his own p