Hans Brinker; Or, The Silver Skates

from the schoolhouse intent upon havi

moments when Carl Schumm

ice! The little rag-pickers! Their skates mu

n hard to learn to skate upon such queer affairs. They are very poo

somewha

t off pretty well only to finish with a jerk. They

hment of the racers, and sailing past every one of them, she halte

ur name, li

awed by Hilda's rank, though they were nearly

eems to have a warm stove somewhere within him, but yo

else to wear, tried to

little. I am past

other girls seem small to me, but that is nothing. Perhaps you will shoot up far a

e saw tears risin

old; but this is bitter weather they s

en warm-too warm when I am skating. You

no harm. I wanted to ask you-I mean-if--" and here Hilda, coming to the point of her

aimed Hans eagerly. "If there

d to speak to you about the grand race. Why do you not join it? You both

Hans, who tugging at his

with the rest. Our skates are hard wood you see," (holding up the sole of

ought of Hans' mishap in the morning, but

may we be there, my lady, o

er heart that she had not spent so much of her monthly allowance for lace and finery. She

he two pairs of feet so very

u is the bet

eplied Hans

ed Gretel, in

a sm

the best chance of winning the race, and buy the skates accordingly. I wish I had enough to buy better ones-good-bye!" and,

a loud tone, stumbling after her as well as he

eld her eyes from the sun, seemed to him to b

panted Hans, "though we kno

ed?" asked Hi

wn, but looking with the eye of a prince a

had noticed a pretty woode

Hans, like the one

wood in the house, fine as ivory; you shall have one

but a poor price for the chain," and off she dar

after her; it was useless he fel

"I must work hard every minute, and sit up half the night if the mother will let

mmer? Do you remember how the mother said it would bring us luck and how she cried when Janzoon Kolp shot him? And she said it would bring h

s the money to buy skates, but if I earn it, Gretel, it

not often cold! Mother says the blood runs up and down in poor ch

y you won't buy the skates, it makes me feel just like crying-

of tears, or emotion of any kind, and, most of all,

. I don't want them. I'm not such a stingy as that; but I want you to have them, and then

elt confident that with a good pair of steel runners, he could readily distance most of the boys on the canal. Then, too, Gretel's argument was so plausible. On the other hand, he knew that she, with her strong but lithe little frame, needed

ait. Some day I may have money enough saved

ut in another instant she

money to you, Hans. I'd

and half walk in her effort to keep beside him; by this time they had taken off t

get a pair a little too small for you, and too big for me, and we can take

tion, but he pushed it away from hi

d chicken, before I curved off the ends. No, you must have a pair to fit exactly, and you must practi

p laughing with deli

" called out a

toward the cottage, Hans still shaki

warm jacket had been given her by the kind-hearted Hilda, and the burst-out shoes had been cobbled into decency by Dame Brinker. As the little creature darted backward and forward, flushed with enjoyment, and quite unconscious

et and patched petticoat skates well. Gunst! she has toes on her heels, and eyes in the back of

t little lady in rags is the special pet of Hilda van Gleck

at her good work there, too!" And Mynheer van Holp, after cutting a double 8 on the ice, to sa

ther, laughingly at first, the

at a sudden conviction that his little sis

three candle-ends, and cut his thumb into the bargain, stood i

TNO

w). In studied or polite address it wo

oin worth one quarter of a guilder