“It was funny the electric wire did not affect the Soft-Voiced Cow!” mused Johnny. “It surely made Janey and me grow like weeds!” “I’ll ask my brother about it when he returns!” replied the Dancing Master. It was not long before they heard the Chief of Detectives singing a yodel song, and soon he came into view over the rocks, carrying a pile of boards, a hammer, some nails and a long piece of rope. As Gran’pa was an expert carpenter he offered to fix the sliding boards. [Illustration: Down, down, the Slide Raft sped, until it was going so fast that its occupants could not talk. (page 125)] “Let’s build one big sled!” he suggested, “and then we can all be together.” “A good idea!” agreed the Tiptoe Brothers. So Gran’pa hammered the boards together and tied them in such a manner that soon he had a fine looking Slide Raft. “We should have a rudder to guide it with,” Gran’pa said as he stood and studied his work, “for who knows but that the mountain may take a few sudden turns farther down!” So Gran’pa with his jack knife sawed away at a small tree until he had cut it down, and with the help of the rope and some small pieces of boards he made a rudder. They all sat down on the Slide Raft, and with everybody pushing and shoving the Slide Raft started down the mountain side, gaining momentum as it went over the slippery needles. The Soft-Voiced Cow sat in the center of the Slide Raft and the others about her. Gran’pa stood at the rudder to guide the Slide Raft should they come to a sudden turn. It was well that Gran’pa had thought of the rudder, for when they had slid down the mountain for about a mile, and the Slide Raft was speeding along at a terrific pace, they came to where the open space beneath the trees turned sharply to the right. Gran’pa swung the rudder round as hard as he could and turned the Slide Raft just in time to escape the trees at the side. Down, down, the Slide Raft sped, until it was going so fast that its occupants could not talk. The wind whistled past them like a gale, and if it had not been for the weight of the Soft-Voiced Cow they would have been swept from the Slide Raft by the force of the wind. Just as they were nearing the bottom of the mountain the ground took a dip. Down this the frail Slide Raft shot suddenly, and up the other side. Gran’ma and Janey screamed as the Slide Raft left the ground at the top of the little mound and plunged straight down for a hundred feet or more. As good fortune had it, the path of the Slide Raft seemed to have been made for just such tobogganing. At the bottom of the fearful drop the ground fell away in a graceful curve, so, after hitting the ground at the bottom of the mountain, the Slide Raft went about five hundred feet out across a small pond at the edge of the pine forest, skipping across the water like a skipper rock thrown by a boy, and came to rest a short distance from the opposite bank.