They arrived at a station in the Bedford Hills, bearing long,
carved-prowed Norwegian skees, which seemed to hypnotize the other
passengers. To Carl's joy (for he associated that suit with the
Palisades and their discovery of each other), Ruth was in her blue
corduroy, with high-lace boots and a gray sweater jacket of silky
wool. Carl displayed a tweed Norfolk jacket, a great sweater, and
mittens unabashed. He had a mysterious pack which, he informed the
excited Ruth, contained Roland's sword and the magic rug of Bagdad.
Together they were apple-cheeked, chattering children of outdoors.

For all the horizon's weight of dark clouds, clear sunshine lay on
clear snow as they left the train and trotted along the road, carrying
their skees beyond the outskirts of the town. Country sleigh-bells
chinkled down a hill; children shouted and made snow houses; elders
stamped their feet and clucked, "Fine day!" New York was far off and
ridiculously unimportant. Carl and Ruth reached an open sloping field,
where the snow that partly covered a large rock was melting at its
lacy, crystaled edges, staining the black rock to a shiny wetness that
was infinitely cheerful in its tiny reflection of the blue sky at the
zenith. On a tree whose bleak bark the sun had warmed, vagrant
sparrows in hand-me-down feathers discussed rumors of the
establishment of a bread-crumb line and the better day that was coming
for all proletarian sparrows. A rounded drift of snow stood out
against a red barn. The litter of corn-stalks and straw in a barn-yard
was transformed from disordered muck to a tessellation of warm silver
and old gold. Not the delicate red and browns and grays alone, but
everywhere the light, as well, caressed the senses. A distant dog
barked good-natured greeting to all the world. The thawing land
stirred with a promise that spring might in time return to lovers.

"Oh, to-day is beautiful as--as--it's beautiful as frosting on a
birthday-cake!" cried Ruth, as she slipped her feet into the straps of
her skees, preparing for her first lesson. "These skees seem so
dreadfully long and unmanageable, now I get them on. Like seven-foot
table-knives, and my silly feet like orange seeds in the middle of the
knives!"

The skees _were_ unmanageable.

One climbed up on the other, and Ruth tried to lift her own weight.
When she was sliding down a hillock they spread apart, eager to chase
things lying in entirely different directions. Ruth came d