or, The Silver Skates 359

Hilda shoots past Katrinka, waving her hand to her mother as
she passes. [wo others are close now, whizzing on like
arrows. What is that flash of red and gray? Hurrah, it is
Gretel! She, too, waves her hand, but toward no gay pavilion.
The crowd is cheering; but she hears only her father’s voice,
— “ Well done, little Gretel!” Soon Katrinka, with a quick,
merry laugh, shoots past Hilda. The girl in yellow is gaining
now. She passes them all, — all except Gretel. ‘The judges
lean’ forward without seeming to lift their eyes from their
watches. Cheer after cheer fills the air: the very columns
seem rocking.. Gretel has passed them. She has won.

“ GRETEL BRINKER, ONE MILE!” shouts the crier.

The judges nod. They write something upon a tablet
which each holds in his hand.

While the girls are resting, — some crowding eagerly around
our frightened little Gretel, some standing aside in high dis-
dain, — the boys form in a line.

Mynheer van Gleck drops the handkerchief, this time. “The
buglers give a vigorous blast. — Off start the boys!

Half-way already. Did ever you see the like!

Three hundred legs flashing by in an instant. But there are
only twenty boys. No matter: there were hundreds of legs, I
am sure. Where are they now? ‘There is such a noise, one
gets bewildered. What are the people laughing at? Oh! at
that fat boy in the rear. See him go! See him! Hell be
down in an instant: no, he won’t. I wonder if he knows he
is all alone: the other boys are nearly at the boundary-line.
Yes, he knows it. He stops. He wipes his hot face. He
takes off his cap, and looks about him. Better to give up with
a good grace. He has made a hundred friends by that hearty,
astonished laugh. Good Jacob Poot !