oremost!

The chase turns in a cloud of mist. It is coming this way. Who is hunted
now? Mercury himself. It is Peter, Peter van Holp; fly, Peter--Hans is
watching you. He is sending all his fleetness, all his strength into
your feet. Your mother and sister are pale with eagerness. Hilda is
trembling and dares not look up. Fly, Peter! The crowd has not gone
deranged, it is only cheering. The pursuers are close upon you! Touch
the white column! It beckons--it is reeling before you--it--

"Huzza! Huzza! Peter has won the silver skates!"

"Peter van Holp!" shouted the crier. But who heard him? "Peter van
Holp!" shouted a hundred voices, for he was the favorite boy of the
place. "Huzza! Huzza!"

Now the music was resolved to be heard. It struck up a lively air, then
a tremendous march. The spectators, thinking something new was about to
happen, deigned to listen and to look.

The racers formed in single file. Peter, being tallest, stood first.
Gretel, the smallest of all, took her place at the end. Hans, who had
borrowed a strap from the cake boy, was near the head.

Three gaily twined arches were placed at intervals upon the river facing
the Van Gleck pavilion.

Skating slowly, and in perfect time to the music, the boys and girls
moved forward, led on by Peter.

It was beautiful to see the bright procession glide along like a living
creature. It curved and doubled, and drew its graceful length in and out
among the arches--whichever way Peter, the head, went, the body was sure
to follow. Sometimes it steered direct for the center arch, then, as if
seized with a new impulse, turned away and curled itself about the
first one, then unwound slowly and, bending low, with quick, snakelike
curvings, crossed the river, passing at length through the furthest
arch.

When the music was slow, the procession seemed to crawl like a thing
afraid. It grew livelier, and the creature darted forward with a
spring, gliding rapidly among the arches, in and out, curling, twisting,
turning, never losing form until, at the shrill call of the bugle
rising above the music, it suddenly resolved itself into boys and girls
standing in a double semicircle before Madam van Gleck's pavilion.

Peter and Gretel stand in the center in advance of the others. Madame
van Gleck rises majestically. Gretel trembles but feels that she must
look at the beautiful lady. She cannot hear what is said, there is such
a buzzing all around her. She is thinking th