The Triple Alliance | Page 2

proper games of cricket or football, and the boys were forced to
content themselves with such substitutes as prisoner's base, cross tag,
etc., or in carrying out the projects of Fred Acton, who was constantly
making suggestions for the employment of their time, and compelling
everybody to conform to his wishes.
Mr. Welsby had been a widower for many years; he was a grave,
scholarly man, who spent most of his spare time in his own library. Mr.
Blake was supposed to take charge out of school hours; he was, as
every one said, "a jolly fellow," and the fact that his popularity
extended far and wide among a large circle of friends and
acquaintances, caused him to have a good many irons in the fire of one
sort and another. During their hours of leisure, therefore, the Birchites
were left pretty much to their own devices, or more often to those of
Master Fred Acton, who liked, as has already been stated, to assume the
office of bellwether to the little flock.
At the time when our story commences the ground was covered with
snow; but Acton was equal to the occasion, and as soon as dinner was
over, ordered all hands to come outside and make a slide.
The garden was on a steep slope, along the bottom of which ran the
brick wall bounding one side of the playground; a straight, steep path
lay between this and the house, and the youthful dux, with his usual
disregard of life and limb, insisted on choosing this as the scene of
operations.
"What!" he cried, in answer to a feeble protest on the part of Mugford,
"make it on level ground? Of course not, when we've got this jolly hill
to go down; not if I know it. We'll open the door at the bottom, and go
right on into the playground."

"But how if any one goes a bit crooked, and runs up against the
bricks?"
"Well, they'll get pretty well smashed, or he will. You must go straight;
that's half the fun of the thing--it'll make it all the more exciting. Come
on and begin to tread down the snow."
Without daring to show any outward signs of reluctance, but with
feelings very much akin to those of men digging their own graves
before being shot, the company set about putting this fearful project
into execution. In about half an hour the slide was in good working
order, and then the fun began.
Mugford, and one or two others whose prudence exceeded their valour,
made a point of sitting down before they had gone many yards,
preferring to take the fall in a milder form than it would have assumed
at a later period in the journey. To the bolder spirits, however, every
trip was like leading a forlorn hope, none expecting to return from the
enterprise unscathed. The pace was terrific: on nearing the playground
wall, all the events of a lifetime might have flashed across the memory
as at the last gasp of a drowning man; and if fortunate enough to whiz
through the doorway, and pull up "all standing" on the level stretch
beyond, it was to draw a deep breath, and regard the successful
performance of the feat as an escape from catastrophe which was
nothing short of miraculous. The unevenness of the ground made it
almost impossible to steer a straight course. A boy might be half-way
down the path, when suddenly he felt himself beginning to turn round;
an agonized look spread over his face; he made one frantic attempt to
keep, as it were, "head to the sea;" there was an awful moment when
house, garden, sky, and playground wall spun round and round; and
then the little group of onlookers, their hearts hardened by their own
sufferings, burst into a roar of laughter; while Acton slapped his leg,
crying, "He's over! What a stunning lark! Who's next?"
At the end of an hour and a half most of the company were temporarily
disabled, and even their chief had not escaped scot free.
"Now then for a regular spanker!" he cried, rushing at the slide. A

"spanker" it certainly was: six yards from the commencement his legs
flew from under him, he soared into the air like a bird, and did not
touch the ground again until he sat down heavily within twenty paces
of the bottom of the slope.
One might have supposed that this catastrophe would have somewhat
damped the sufferer's ardour; but instead of that he only seemed fired
with a fresh desire to break his neck.
He hobbled up the hill, and pausing for a moment at the top to take
breath, suddenly exclaimed, "Look here, I'm going down it on skates."
Every one stood aghast at this