And even on the pond there were no more real battles that winter. Only now and then some mischievous urchin tripped up our brand-new skates, and begged our pardon as he left us on our backs. And more than once, when "the island" in the middle of the pond was a very fairyland of hoar-frosted twigs and snow-plumed larches, I have seen its white loveliness rudely shaken, and skating round to discover the cause, have beheld Jem, with cheeks redder than his scarlet comforter, return an "accidental" shove with interest; or posed like a ruffled robin redbreast, to defend a newly-made slide against intruders. CHAPTER VIII. "He it was who sent the snowflakes Sifting, hissing through the forest; Froze the ponds, the lakes, the rivers, * * * * * Shinbegis, the diver, feared not." _The Song of Hiawatha_. The first day of February was mild, and foggy, and cloudy, and in the night I woke feeling very hot, and threw off my quilt, and heard the dripping of soft rain in the dark outside, and thought, "There goes our skating." Towards morning, however, I woke again, and had to pull the quilt back into its place, and when I started after breakfast to see what the dam looked like, there was a sharpish frost, which, coming after a day of thaw, had given the ice such a fine smooth surface as we had not had for long. I felt quite sorry for Jem, because he was going in the dog-cart with my father to see a horse, and as I hadn't got him to skate with, I went down to the farm after breakfast, to see what Charlie and the Woods were going to do. Charlie was not well, but Mr. Wood said he would come to the dam with me after dinner, as he had to go to the next village on business, and the dam lay in his way. "Keep to the pond this morning, Jack," he added, to my astonishment. "Remember it thawed all yesterday; and if the wheel was freed and has been turning, it has run water off from under the ice, and all may not be sound that's smooth." The pond was softer than it looked, but the mill-dam was most tempting. A sheet of "glare ice," as Americans say, smooth and clear as a newly-washed window-pane. I did not go on it, but I brought Mr. Wood to it early in the afternoon, in the full hope that he would give me leave. We found several young men on the bank, some fastening their skates and some trying the ice with their heels, and as we stood there the numbers increased, and most of them went on without hesitation; and when they rushed in groups together, I noticed that the ice slightly swayed. "The ice bends a good deal," said Mr. Wood to a man standing next to us. "They say it's not so like to break when it bends," was the reply; and the man moved on. A good many of the elder men from the village had come up, and a group, including John Binder, now stood alongside of us.