g," she said with new encouragement
in her voice.

"Oh, it's always the same!" wailed Louie. "Year before last I got so I
could do it quite respectably, and then last year I had to learn all
over again. I really thought I'd pick it up where I left off this
year, but you see how it is! The very sight of the ice when I'm on
skates makes me quake."

"Just force yourself to do it and you'll be surprised to see how soon
you'll be skimming all over creation," advised Nan, as she unfastened
her friend's skates and saw her start stiffly up the path to the Lodge.

Her heart gave a bound as she realized that she was at last alone and
untrammeled. She pulled her Russian cap well into place, thrust her
hands deep into her pockets, and set out for the middle of the lake,
her lithe young body swaying gently forward as she was carried this way
and that by her gliding feet. She looked about for John, but he was
nowhere to be seen, and she concluded that he had given up expecting
her and had either gone home or joined other friends. Ruth was forging
about after her own peculiar fashion, getting in every one's way and
under every one's feet, and enjoying it all immensely. She was
perfectly self-reliant, and Nan did not feel that there was any
necessity of offering assistance or even companionship to such a
self-sufficient, resolute maiden, and so she set about enjoying her
independence with a clear conscience. A moment later she had forgotten
everything but the keen delight of the delicious exercise; the fresh
current of air upon her cheeks; the sense of flashing through space
"without any appreciable effort; the knowledge of her mastery of the
art. She had not a shadow of fear. Instead, she felt a sort of wild
exultation in her own daring, and set about doing difficult feats with
an added delight in the very risk of the thing. Suddenly a shadow shot
toward her from the back, caught her by the arm and went flying
forward, suiting his rhythm to hers in an instant.

"Oh! heyo, John! I thought you'd gone home!" said Nan.

"Not a bit of it. Think I'd leave the ice when it's as prime as this?
Not much. What under the canopy have you been about all this time?
Toting Lou Hawes around when you ought to be making the best of the
rarest chance you'll get this season, maybe?"

"Oh, that's all right," rejoined Nan in a matter-of-fact way. "I liked
to do it--for a change. And she's a little timid."

"Well now, you're free, let