THE SKATER AND THE WOLVES.

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10. Their tongues were lolling out; their white tusks were gleaming from their bloody mouths; their dark, shaggy breasts were fleeced with foam; and, as they passed me, their eyes glared, and they howled with fury. The thought flashed on my mind that, by this means, I could avoid them, namely, by turning aside whenever they came too near; for, by the formation of their feet, they are unable to run on ice except in a straight line.

11. I immediately acted upon this plan. The wolves, having regained their feet, sprang directly towards me. The race was renewed for twenty yards up the stream; they were already close at my back, when I glided round, and dashed directly past them. A fierce yell greeted my evolution, and the wolves, slipping on their haunches, sailed onward, presenting a perfect picture of helplessness and baffled rage. Thus, I gained nearly a hundred yards at each turning. This was repeated two or three times, the animals becoming more excited and baffled every

moment.

12. At one time, by delaying my turning too long, my sanguinary antagonists came so near that they threw their white foam over my dress, as they sprang to seize me, and their teeth clashed together like the spring of a fox-trap. Had my skates failed for one instant, — had I tripped on a stick, or had my foot been caught in a fissure of the ice, the story I am now telling would never have been told.

-

13. At last, I came opposite the house, and my hounds I knew their deep voices — roused by the noise, bayed furiously from their kennels. I heard their chains rattle; how I wished they would break them! - then I should have had protectors to match the fiercest denizens of the forest. The wolves, taking the hint given by the dogs, stopped in their mad career, and, after a few moments,

1

2. Tip-toed figures reach the catch,
Tiny fingers click the latch;
Curly-headed girls throng in,
Lily-free from toil and sin.
Breezy boys bolt in together,
Bringing breaths of winter weather,
Bringing baskets, Indian-checked,
Dinners in them, sadly wrecked.

3. Don't you hear the scholars thrumming? Bumble-bees in June!

All the leaves together thumbing,
Singers hunting for a tune?
Master mending pens, and humming
"Bonny Doon?"

4. Writing class with heads one way
And tongues all out for a holiday!
Hark to the goose-quill's spattering grate,
Rasping like an awkward skate,

Swinging round in mighty B's,

Lazy X's and crazy Z's!

5. Bounding states, are the Humboldts small Chanting slow in common time Broken China's rugged rhyme, "Yang-tse-kiang-Ho-ang-ho-" Heavenly rivers! How they flow!

6. Aproned urchin, aged five,

Youngest in the humming hive,
Standing by the Master's knee,
Calls the roll of A, B, C.

Frightened hair all blown about,
Buttered lips in half a pout,

Knuckle boring out an eye,
Saying "P," and thinking" pie,"

Feeling for a speckled bean,

"Twixt each brooth a dumb revino

Catches breath, and spells the word,
Flits up the class, like any bird,

Cheeks in bloom with honest blood,

And proudly stands, where Bashan stood!

10. Evening reddens on the wall "Attention!"

Now "Obeisance all!"

The girls' short dresses touch the floor,
They drop their courtesies at the door;
The boys jerk bows with jack-knife springs,
And out of doors they all take wings!