in regulating our exercise; we frequently skated at top speed. until wet with perspiration and then sat on the ice to cool off. Sometimes we got heavy colds from that.

Coasting

The snow falls in winter were very great. Frequently there would be four feet of snow in the woods. Around the edge of the clearing and about buildings, banks would pile up as high as the houses. After a big storm, the roadmaster would order the men out to break the roads; they would shovel canals through banks they could not get around, and break down the fences, and make roads through the fields. Often the horses would get stuck and there would be great shouting and excitement. It was hard work for both horses and men. We boys would engineer tunnels through the great banks between the house and the barn, and make Eskimo houses.

One winter the snow piled up about our house so that I could walk on it up to the chimney top; this made a fine coasting place; I would pull my sled up and get on it and go like a bird down and across the field. In my flight I had to pass close by the well and it required good steering to keep clear of it; but some danger seemed to add to the fun and make it more exciting and interesting. In all our life’s actions we should look ahead for possible dangers and make sure steering, and see that it is safe at the stopping place.

A Wild C 04:! Through a Tunnel

One winter I was away from home on a visit. There was a great coasting place of more than a mile, on a main road down the side of a great hill; we got a big wood sleigh and pulled it to the top of the hill; to steer it one of the boys got on his stomach on a light coasting sled and got between the shafts of the big sleigh. As it was on a main traffic road we had to keep a sharp look-out for approaching teams. When our sleigh got going the speed was equal to an express train. One night a crowd of young people were coming down on this at a wild rate of speed, when to their terror they saw two loads of hay ap- proaching; if they ran into these it was sure destruction and the death of, at’ least, some. To turn off among stones and stumps was equally dangerous. The steerer, however, had good nerve. He watched for

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