Year: 1872

being wide enough to furnish point of
contact for the owner. These required
some skill in management yet, as they
could be made in ten minutes, whole
school, upon a sudden snow, could be
started down hill in an hour or two, with
such laughing, screaming, and hallooing
as would wake the seven sleepers. Next
in rank are the board runners, shaped out
of solid plank, and fioored over strongly.
Coarse, ungainly and heavy, as they were,
some great sliding has been done on them
1t Is not the handsomest horse, or sled, or
editor, that gets along best-is its Then
came to our admiring eyes the framed
sleds with open sides, fine runners well
shod with steel, and at length iron-framed
underpinning all through. To all this is,
in modern days, added blaze of paint,
and names lofty as the stars. We admit
that great improvements are made in
beauty, and in convenience; but is any
better sliding done on these superfine
sleds than used to be, and still is, done by
the old, rude, homely ummoxes of coun-
try make (For that word see Webster.)


OF all positions, the worst, the most in
eXcusable, is what used to be called a
belly-bumper, or when one lies down upon
his sled, with head to the front. steering
with his toes. The position is ungainly,
the head is thrust forward and exposed to
danger, and in case of need, the body is
in helpless position.


Next is the side-saddle posture, or
when the boy sits cuIled up from the rear
of the sled, with one leg under him, and
the other projecting backward for a rud-
der.


The upright posture, with legs extended
over the sides, or carried forward between
or even in front of the runners, is the
true position for bold boy of the sled.
He has the use of his whole body,
and the perfect control of his sled;
and if he comes to harm, it must be set
down to the large account of profit and
loss which every spirited boy runs up.


Let no man revile the joys of ice-clad
hill or ridicule the task of Juggling heavy
sled up the hill for the sake of rushing
down again All, yes-but that down
ward rush is ecstacy.


Clear the coast, Here goes! Right be-
hind is rival sled. Away we go, every
yard quickening the rate; we come to the
jumpers, and fly through the air as if shot


from a catapult, and strike down again


with jar that makes the sled crack
Clear the coastl Here we comel The


boys draw aside Neck and neck we go,


glorious, There is a sturdy old farmer
who never could find out what boys were


made for. He won't get out of the way
not hei He shakes his cane as a warn
ing. Too late-we strike him Just above
the ankles and he goes over our head like


a shadow, but we hear him come down
] behind like a substancel In a second we
are away and out of reach and hearing.
| OF course there is fuss and we are call
! ed up, and the master, with twinkle in
| his eye, scolds us and says we must say


we are sorry; and everybody says served
I him right, the old curmudgeon, he ought
/ to have kept out of the road; and we find
/ ourselves the heroes of the school
! Then who will forget when our pretty
cousins wanted to take a cruise on our
sled, and how our sisters, too, were the


guests of proudly polite boys, and how
the courtesy of the hillside was shown to
the girls as ardently and disinterestedly


as ever it could be in after life on more
/ important occasions.


Perhaps the teacher was willing to
show his condescension and take passage


on double sled. Great was the hurTah


raised for him, and ecstatic the yell uni
/ versal, when, by a deXterous turn at the
bottom of the hill, the sled went out from
under him, and he made the few remain
/ ing yards of distance without help, and
! turned up quite like heap of dirty snow.
| All, Mr.. Bonner, let your horses slide /;
I come take my new sled, Dexter, go up to
/ the Worcester hills, and spend a day in
"coasting," and come back declaring that


of all races, none, for pleasure, can beat


a sled, with good fellow on it, upon u


mile-long hill, with smooth and icy
! track