The Brattleboro reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1907-1912, 1910-04-15

She OPENED the locket ana sure enough
there was the picture Of Mrs. Drew and
Leila.
Mr,. Drew wrote 10 Mrs. Dumarche
and IA. told the girls that Fan was no
longer Fan Ward but Leila Drew.
Pan. or Leila ~ We must now call
her. went 10 live with Mrs. Drew. Mr..
Drew was out West but hurried home
10 see his little girl.
Every summer now Leila goes 10 the
country 10 stay through her vacation
with Lesley, Cecil, Nora and Laura.
What friends the Ave girls are and what
good times they have together!
Skeeing.
| tBy Clarence g.. Convey, 10, west
Brattleboro.)
IN j. only few years since skees
have been used in America ana that
only in sports, but IN Norway, lney
are necessary to have in travelling
over the deem snow. They are made
of wood. ash being the best, but they
can be made of pine or birch or al
most any wood in which the grain runs
straight They are 10 feet long and
aboui four inches broad, and taper up
| in front in n graceful curve. \ shght
urooye about half an inch wide runs
/ along the middle from front 70 BACK
/ 10 Keep il steady in one direction.
/ About an inch back OF the midule
! a loop is made out of twisted willow
ar leather covered bamboo, max
| ing firm but flexible support ipl
/ the foot about, two inches back OF the
base of the loop for the toe. Another
4 Loon rms from the base of the loop
/ for the toes. and all around the heel,
while one strap fastens the TWO
sides of this loop under the foot. lhey
are fastened on by strap buekled
over the instep.
By use the skees become very
smooth and slide over the snow easny'
| While moving the skee is half showed,
half lifted forward but in walking
Is never lifted from the snow Inc
runner lust eases its weight by rest
inc On one skee and showing the other
forward. In this way he may go
two lengths of his skee or 20 feet at
eoeh stride. II is said one can keep
M with a trotting horse before
Tbe Norwegian Lapp has been
known TO catch a wolf in flight on
level ground. the wolf being handl-
capped by a sinking in at every step,
while the man on skees does not slnk
in the least bit. Some of the peasants
are wholly dependent on the skees Iol
soldiers in the Norwegian army are
Obliged to be trained to use skees,
although ii is said only those who have
grown into the use of skees from boy
hood can ever become experts or en-
iov whole days of travel on them.
Skeeing has become very popular as
a sport and great match takes place
every wear on a steep hill near Chris
tiania. The hill descends at an angle
of As degrees or more and is about an
English mile long. The eompetltors
must not be over 26 years old ana eacn
receives number which he fastens to
his breast The judges stand is at
the right of the jump and 60 feet be-
! low is a stand for physicians, although
their services are seldom needed as
there are not many serious accidents.
The signal is given to start. The
contestants speed increases as he
moves down the hill until all Of
sudden he shoots out into the air from
n ledge of snow, which is made Tor
the purpose on the hill, and is lost
in cloud of snow, where, perhaps, the
people may see broken skee or a
plimpse of an arm or leg, until at last
the snow settles and the sportsman,
amid the laughter of the crowd, be,
Gins TO collect his scattered skees and
thoughts.
# is claimed that no sport takes
such strength and persistence as skee-.
ing, and the jumping needs nerve and
presence of mind. During the vacaee
tions, even the small boys take bags. OF
food on their backs and go on skeelng
parties into the woods, and stay sev,
eral weeks. At night they build
| b,,+c Of nina branches. LII
one breaks his skees he mends them
himself and that teaches him to be
handy and useful.
school had the skee fever. The
fever ran so high that some of us
couldn t wait to have some skees made
at the shop so we made some ourselves,
using a bed Stat with part OF a.cheese
box tackled on the end to form the
graceful" curve, While we dld MOI
find these Just what we wanted we
made a great many skeeing trips with
them and also took our share OF tum-
HES but there was no crowd to cheer
One night after / had been out on
nv homemade skees and was pretty
tired 1 dreamed that 1 was a profess
sional skeer in Norway. One day !
i climbed high hill where l could get
i good view OF the country was
SO interested in studying the scenery
that it commenced to be dark before
1 realized how late it was. l knew
It would take several hours to get back
to the village if / walked. After
measuring the distance in my mind
[ decided I could jump it, SO after run
ming few steps 1 gave jump expect.
ing to land very near, if not quite
at the village. I did not think the
distance was quite SO great, SO when
I landed I found myself not at the
| village, but in the midst Of bears
den. I was somewhat surprised when
7 looked around to see one old bear
standing on his launches quite near
me and I thought be was just ready to
hug me but could not move. He had
inst reached me when I heard my
father calling that it was time to get