Nan Sherwoods Winter Holidays | Page 3

"We'll show 'em how to speed a bobsled, if you'll give us a chance," she
complained. "That thing of the Mason's didn't get to the island. We'll
show 'em!"
Nan Sherwood and her friends piled off the first sled upon the ice with
great delight and much hilarity.
"I declare!" gasped Laura. "I left my breath at the top of the hill. O-o-o!
What a ride!"
"It's ju-just like swinging too high!" burst out flaxen-haired Lillie.
Nan and Bess had brought their skates slung over their shoulders by the
straps. Before getting up off the sled the chums put these on and then
were ready to draw the heavy sled back across the ice to the shore.
"Get aboard--all of you!" Bess cried. "All you lazy folks can have a
ride!"
"And do hurry!" added Nan. "Here come some more bobs."
The second sled did not gain momentum enough to slide half-way
across the strait between the mainland and the Isle of Hope. But now
appeared the "Linda Riggs' crew," as Laura called them, and their shiny,
new sled. Out of the enveloping grove which masked the side of
Pendragon Hill it came, shooting over the last "thank-you-ma'am" and

taking the ice with a ringing crash of steel on crystal.
"Got to hand it to 'em!" exclaimed Walter, with admiration. "That's
some sled Linda's got."
"So's ours," Bess said stoutly. "See, they're not going to run farther than
we did."
"I don't know about that," murmured Nan, honestly.
"Come on!" Bess cried. "Let's get back and try it again. I know those
horrid things can't beat the _Sky-rocket_."
The other girls had already piled upon the bobsled. Walter started them
with a push and called a "good-bye" after them. He was going to put on
his own skates and skate up the strait to the Mason house. The family
was staying here on the shores of Lake Huron much later than usual
this year.
Nan Sherwood and Bess Harley had no trouble at all in dragging their
mates across the ice upon the _Sky-rocket_. Linda's sled, the Gay Girl,
did go farther than the first-named sled, and Bess was anxious to get to
the top of the hill to try it over again.
"It will never do in this world to let them crow over us," Bess declared.
She and Nan slipped off their skates at the edge of the ice and all six
laid hold of the long rope to pull the _Sky-rocket_ up the hill.
A fourth bobsled rushed past them, the girls screaming and laughing;
and then a fifth flew by.
"Mrs. Gleason said she would come over before supper time," Laura
Polk said. Mrs. Gleason was the physical instructor at the Hall.
"Let's get her on our sled!" cried Bess.
"Let's!" chorused the others.

But no teacher save Professor Krenner was on the brow of the hill when
the _Sky-rocket_ was hauled into position again. This time Nan steered,
with firmly braced feet, her mittened hands on the wheel-rim, and her
bright eyes staring straight down the course.
"Are you ready?" cried the professor, almost as eager as the girls
themselves. Then he blew the warning blast to tell all below on the
hillside that the _Sky-rocket_ was coming.
Ta-ra! ta-ra! ta-ra-ra-ra! Ta-_rat!_
With a rush the sled was off. It disappeared around the evergreen clump.
The hum of its runners was dying away when suddenly there sounded a
chorus of screams, evidently from the _Sky-rocket_ crew. Following
this, a crash and a turmoil of cries, expressing both anger and fright,
rang out upon the lower hillside.
CHAPTER II
THE FAT MAN WITH HIS GROUCH
Nan Sherwood had steered this big bobsled down Pendragon Hill many
times. She had no fear of an accident when they started, although the
rush of wind past them seemed to stop her breath and made her eyes
water.
There really was not a dangerous spot on the whole slide. It crossed but
one road and that the path leading down to Professor Krenner's cabin.
At this intersection of the slide and the driveway, Walter Mason had
erected a sign-board on which had been rudely printed:
STOP! LOOK! LISTEN!
Few people traversed this way in any case; and it did seem as though
those who did would obey the injunction of the sign. Not so a heavy-set,
burly looking man who was tramping along the half-beaten path just as
Nan and her chums dashed down the hill on the bobsled. This big man,
whose broad face showed no sign of cheerfulness, but exactly the

opposite, tramped on without a glance at the sign-board. He started
across the slide as the prow of the _Sky-rocket_, with Nan clinging to
the wheel, shot into view.
The girls shrieked in chorus--all but Nan herself. The stubborn, fat