ted. "But I can't go out with you this morning, John--at
least not now. Later I may take a turn if you're willing."

He saw that there was no shaking her resolution, and turned away with a
frown and a sigh.

"Very well. If you won't, you won't. I'll look you up by and by,
though, and maybe you'll have changed your mind by then," and he was
off like a flash, his flying feet seeming scarcely to touch the ice,
and his long, curved, glistening skates flashing back the sunlight from
their dazzling nickel blades.

Louie clutched Nan's arm. "Oh, I'm so glad you didn't go!" she said,
agitatedly. "I'm all of a tremble, and I'm sure I'll slip if you don't
hold on to me."

So Nan held on to her, and slowly piloted her this way and that, urging
her gently to strike out alone, and patiently waiting until she had the
courage to try. Ruth darted hither and thither, minding it as little
when she went down herself as when she was the cause of others doing
so, and always skating with an awkward energy that was refreshing to
behold.

"O Nan!" panted Louie, "how did you learn?"

"By getting up whenever I fell down," declared Nan, succinctly.

Ruth came toward them with arms flying like windmills.

"O girls!" she gasped; but just here her feet went from under her, and
she sat squarely upon the ice with a great plump. "O girls!" she
repeated, not a bit abashed and without trying to get up, "Mary
Brewster and Grace are over there, and they just asked John to take
them out--at least Mary did--and he said he was ever so sorry, but his
'card was full,' and they are simply furious."

"Get up!" commanded Nan, with lips that would twitch in spite of her
efforts to control them. "You'll catch your death of cold!"

Ruth grasped her outstretched hand and struggled to her feet. "How are
you getting on, Lu?" she asked, shaking the snow from her skirts.

"I think I'm doing a little better. Don't you, Nan?" appealed Louie,
tremulously.

"Why, yes. You'll skate as well as any one after you've once gained
courage," Nan returned cheerfully, and took up the slow, tedious task
again of steering her laboriously this way and that, Louie meanwhile
clinging to her arm and uttering little panic-stricken shrieks that
irritated Nan beyond measure. No one could conceive how hard it was
for the girl not to desert her clinging companion. She knew in her
heart that Louie would never master the knack unless she were made to
rely upon herself.