en built expressly for going on ice, for it seemed like my
native element. Those beautiful moonlight nights, with the cold blue sky
above and the glittering crystal beneath, were like glimpses of
fairyland. Mr. Summers taught me how to skate, for which I was
sufficiently grateful; but I had no idea of being handed over to him
exclusively for the benefit of Peppersville, so I seized upon 'big
boys,' or staid, married men, or anything that came handy in the way of
support, until I was sufficiently experienced to go alone.

Helen Legram did not skate. Nothing could induce her to venture; and
probably, while we were cultivating our heels on the ice, she was
cultivating her head in milder latitudes. I thought, _then_, that she
was to be pitied; but, two weeks later, I would have given all that I
possessed to have followed her example in the beginning.

It was intensely cold that night, and somehow my skates were very
troublesome. Mr. Summers bent down to arrange them, and I declined
making use of his shoulder as a support. I never knew how I did it, but
ice is slippery; I performed an extraordinary slide--kicked Mr. Summers
directly in the mouth, thereby knocking out one of his front teeth, as
though I had been a vicious horse--and went backward into the arms of
the oldest male pupil of the Peppersville Academy, while my unfortunate
victim, knocked into a state of insensibility, fell prostrate on the
ice.

A crowd gathered, of course, and raised their venerable preceptor, and
brought him to his senses, while I was congratulated on my escape. I
looked upon this as the most awkward predicament I had ever been placed
in, and was completely nonplussed as to the course of action to be
pursued under the circumstances. Had I been in love with Mr. Summers, or
he with me, the case would have been different; as it was, I would have
given much to have changed places with him. He declared, however, that
it was nothing, laughed about the accident, and said that one tooth more
or less made very little difference. Had he been a woman, he never would
have forgiven me.

The next morning, Mr. Summers was not at school, and Helen Legram took
his place. They boarded in the same house; and from her I learned that
his mouth was so much swollen he could scarcely speak. It was very
disagreeable, certainly; but, having weighed the matter all the morning,
I came to the conclusion by afternoon, that it was decidedly my duty to
go and see after Mr.