144 PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS.

new skates. There never was a prettier
pair of skates—there never could have
been anything before that went over the
ice so gracefully and so swiftly. So we
thought. It was voted, unanimously—
that last word is a little too long, and
you may split it to pieces, if you like to
put another in its place—by the boys on
the pond at the time, of whom, it must
be confessed, the aforesaid Daniel and
myself comprised something more than
half, that Frank’s skates were finer even
than Charley Hoyt’s; and the school-
master had been heard to say that
Charley’s were the best that had ever
come into Willow Lane. You can easily