off, Hal and Walter with the rope of the toboggan
between them pulling, and Pat pushing behind with his hands on Sparrer's
shoulders.

Before them stretched the gray-white expanse of the lake, and on either
side the glistening white shores, now receding as they passed a deep
bay, again creeping out in a long point. There was no sound save the
sharp ring of the skates and the soft grate of the smoothly slipping
toboggan. Past two big summer hotels with blank staring windows, past
shuttered and deserted summer camps they sped until all sign of man's
handiwork disappeared. The keen air was like wine in their veins and it
was hard to believe that the thermometer had registered eighteen below
zero that morning, for the air was dry and did not penetrate as would
the moisture laden air at home at a temperature many degrees above the
zero mark.

"I just can't believe that thermometer was on its job," protested Hal,
as they stopped for a breathing spell half-way down the lake. "Why, I'm
so warm I wish I was rid of this mackinaw."

"Me too," added Walter.

Pat suddenly whirled Hal around and looked keenly at his left ear. The
rim was a dead white. "If you can't believe the thermometer perhaps you
can believe this," said he drily as he touched the ear. "What did I tell
you about keeping your cap down over your ears? Shure, 'tis a tenderfoot
and not a first class Scout at all, at all, thot ye be."

"What do you mean?" demanded Hal as he slipped a glove off to feel of
the ear. At the look of blank astonishment that swept across his face as
he discovered that the edge of his ear was stiff and wholly without
feeling the others roared with laughter.

"I mean that you're frost-bitten already," replied Pat, "and I hope that
this will be a lesson to the whole bunch of you. You may not feel him,
but old Jack Frost is right on the job just the same, and it don't do up
here to needlessly expose yourself. It is because the air is so dry that
you don't feel the frost, but you freeze just the same. We'll run over
to that point and thaw you out, and then I guess you'll keep your cap
down where it belongs."

At the point Pat rubbed the frosted ear vigorously with a handful of
snow until the frost was out and for a few minutes Hal danced with the
ache of it, while the others grinned. "That's one on me, all right, and
you're welcome to laugh, but little Hal Harrison has learned his lesson.
No more frost-bites for me, thank you," he growled.