Not only was the weather-clerk thus considerate, but nature had already been kind enough to provide them with the finest site for a toboggan slide imaginable. The placid stream which bore the name of Bass River spread out into a broad reach just before it came to their town, and on one side the bank rose up into a steep bluff whose grass-grown face, slanting right down to the water’s edge without a break or gully, seemed intended for no other purpose than to afford the boys a splendid coasting-ground when well sheeted with snow. And the boys knew right well how to appreciate their privileges, I can assure you. To go out to Bass River Bluff on a Saturday afternoon was to witness a scene well worth seeing. The hill would fairly swarm with boys and girls enjoying themselves to the top of their bent. From Patsey Kehoe, the washer-woman’s ragged urchin, with his curious apology for a sled constructed out of old barrel staves, on which he dared to take only short slides from a little way up the hill, and which he sorely regretted was not big enough to carry him and Katey at the same time, to Ralph Masterton, the eldest son of the rich and haughty judge, with his big toboggan, so finely varnished and comfortably cushioned, that could take four persons down every trip, the young people of the town would turn out and make the valley ring with their laughter and shouting. One of the most regular attendants at Bass River Bluff was Theo Ross, who, with his widowed mother, lived in a cozy cottage on the opposite side of the river from the town, and consequently was looked upon as one of the country boys, although he came in every day to the high school. There was a good deal of rivalry between the boys of Bridgetown and those who lived in the scattered settlement across the river, which was known as Riverside—a rivalry that led to all sorts of matches, and now and then to fights. No one took more hearty interest in this rivalry than Theo. He was a strong, stout, hardy lad of sixteen, up to anything, as the saying is, and was generally looked upon by the Riverside boys as their leader. One Saturday evening he came home in high spirits. "Hoop-de-dooden-do!" he shouted, as he burst into the house. "Why, Theo, what are you so excited about?" inquired his mother, looking up with a glad smile of welcome for the boy that was the joy and pride of her life. "Excited? Perhaps I am; and no wonder, for aren’t we going to have the biggest tobogganing match next Saturday afternoon that you ever heard of!" replied Theo, at the same time giving his mother a hug and a kiss that were a credit to both, for it showed how thoroughly they understood one another.