CHAPTER XX.
SKATING ON THE RIVER.

We now must skip over the summer and
autumn, and come suddenly upon the first
of January.

Instead of a swimming party, there is a
skating party upon the river. How they glide
over the smooth ice! There is Tom Mixon.
He is “ cutting a cypher,” as he calls it ;—that
is, he is making T. M. in great letters upon the
ice with his skates. How easily he swings
himself round, and makes the letters. Howard
Framingham is making awkward attempts at
skating—he has never learned the art. George
Cramer flourishes about, making passes in the
air, and bending himself so far backward that
there is danger of breaking his back. There
they go, over the glassy ice!