ure we have gone down as
steep places before at home."

"Ay, lass, but not with a round-backed drift like that at the bottom.
It has got such a curve that I think it would make us fly right up into
the air."

Nelly admitted that it looked dangerous, but suggested that they might
make a trial.

"Well, so we will, but I'll go down by myself first," said Roy,
arranging the sledge at the summit of a slope, which was full fifty feet
high.

"Now, then, pick up the bits tenderly, Nell, if I'm knocked to pieces;
here goes, hurrah!"

Roy had seated himself on the sledge, with his feet resting on the head
of it, and holding on to the side-lines with both hands firmly. He
pushed off as he cheered, and the next moment was flying down the hill
at railway speed, with a cloud of snow-drift rolling like steam behind
him. He reached the foot, and the impetus sent him up and over the
snow-drift or wave, and far out upon the surface of the lake. It is
true he made one or two violent swerves in this wild descent, owing to
inequalities in the hill, but by a touch of his hands in the snow on
either side, he guided the sledge, as with a rudder, and reached the
foot in safety.

"May I venture, Roy?" inquired Nell, eagerly, as the lad came panting up
the hill.

"Venture! Of course. I rose off the top o' the drift only a little
bit, hardly felt the crack at all; come, get you on in front, and I'll
sit at yer back an' steer."

Nelly needed no second bidding. She sat down and seized the side-lines
of the sledge, with a look of what we may call wild expectation; Roy sat
down behind her.

"Now, lass, steady, and away we go!"

At the last word they shot from the hill-top like an arrow from a bow.
The cloud of snow behind them rolled thicker, for the sledge was more
heavily laden than before. Owing to the same cause it plunged into the
hollow at the foot of the hill with greater violence, and shot up the
slope of the snow-drift and over its crest with such force that it
sprung horizontally forward for a few feet in the air, and came to the
ground with a crash that extracted a loud gasp from Roy, and a sharp
squeak from Nelly. It was found to be so delightful, however, that they
tried it again and again, each time becoming more expert, and therefore
more confident.

Excessive confidence, however, frequently engenders carelessness. Roy
soon became reckless; Nelly waxed fearless. The result was that the
former steered somewhat