Evening star., 1923-01-07

stove in the dining room was cherry
red in spots. Also Sairy was ready
with platter of sausages and a bowl
of buckwheat batter.
It's just great, havin' you come up
for Christmas, Trilby May" says
Sairy, but don't know how you and
your young lady friend are goin' to
amuse yourselves for long. We been
kinda shut in up here the last two
weeks"
Nothing like that for US, Sairy,"
says 1. I'VE came up to play around
In the great outdoors. to stray about
the fields and over the hills and get
next to nature"
Sairy snickered. You're gonna find
| the strayin' a, little chilly" says she,
"and some heavy under foot"
"Shucks. mawr' protests Millie. Its
just fine out And there ought TO be
swell coastin' down Jordan hill"
Now that sounds good to me-" says
]. Ever do any coasting, Gladys?'
Gladys hadn't. But she'd seen
movies of winter sports in Switzer-
| land.
We'll organize some right here in
New Hampshire" says 1. How about
sleds, Miller
Them Hewitt boys had a skeebob
out on the hill a couple of weeks
ago." says Millie. They're workin'
| in the mill now, though, and may
be-
''Of course" says 1. Not that 1
know just what a skeebob is, but I'd
| L
money. Trot up to Hewitt's and
either hire or buy the thing
\ y X
| 90 after luncheon we all piled into
| y the sleigh again and drove as far
up the hill as we could. From there
we walked to the top and loaded our
selves on the skeebob affair. It's like
a toboggan with skees for runners
and you steer 1t with ropes. And,
say, over hard-packed snow. such as
covered the steep sides OF Jordan hill,
! is simply flew, especially after it had
accumulated all the momentum from
| Ailhe's $50 pounds and the combined
weight of Gladys and Dunk and me.
"we-e-ough",. whoops Mile as we
struck a bump half way down and
shot out into space for a dozen feet or
| more.
Good night" gasps Gladys, grab
bing me frantic around the neck.
Hold tight" warns Dunk. Were
gonna jump the brook now"
We cleared it all right, but our
landing was a bit wobbly. The shee-
| bob took wide curve on the farther
side, headed straight into a big drift
and spilled US all over the lot.
"Oh. boy"' says Gladys, clawing
snow out of her eyes and ears. Say,
this coastin'. stunt has got anything
in Luna Park beat a mile. Do we do
it again.
"Sure!" says Dunk; "only we need
more weight on the back end. Millie,
I you shift to the stern this time"
And that proved to be what was
needed. After the long climb back to
! the summit we showed off once more
Down the hill we whiEzed, taking the
bumps like a great bird, across the
brook with soaring leap, ana on
| across the meadow until we finally
stopped, safe and sound, nearly half
a mile from where we started. And
1t was far from a silent trip, too
Millie let loose her whoops, Gladys
chimed in with squeals, and believe
I added a few yelps now and then
| just TO be sociable. Anyway, there
was nobody to disturb, except that
| we did seem to stir up flock OF
1 crows that left their perches in some
| tall pines to fly around cawing indig-
nantly.
Perhaps coasting sounds like sim
pie sport to get excited over, but it's
more or less fascinating. Gets into
your blood. And an occasional spill
only livens things up. When you
| pick yourself up and find no bones
broken you stand around and laugh.
1 don't know what at exactly. Only
you do. Mfliie would come wallow-
Ing out of a drift. blowing snow from
her mouth and nosa and digg1ng q
J. = )