d. Let's try, anyhow."

They found that there was just about room enough on the toboggan slide
for their sleds side by side. They climbed up the rickety stairs, made
of small boxes nailed one to the other, and soon the two boys stood on
the little platform at the top of the wooden slope. They had carried up
their sleds with them--the sleds with the candle-greased runners.

"Are you ready?" asked Ted of his playmate.

"All ready," answered Tom. "Let's start!"

They put down their sleds and stretched themselves out on the coasters.

"Wouldn't it be funny if they got stuck half way down?" giggled Lola,
who, with Janet, was waiting on the ground below off at one side to see
what luck the boys would have.

"Oh, we won't get stuck!" laughed Tom. "Come on now, Ted! Push!"

Together they pushed themselves from the level platform down the wooden
hill. The sleds hung on the brink for a moment and then went coasting
down as nicely as you please, and quite swiftly.

"Hurray!" cried Ted, as he felt himself gliding along, coasting almost
as well as if there had been snow on the wooden toboggan hill. "This is
nifty!"

"Great!" added Tom.

The boys were so surprised to find out how well they could coast without
snow that they forgot about having a race. As it was, they both came to
the end of the slope at the same time. The sleds shot up the little
incline and landed on the grass beyond with a bump. Teddy fell off his,
but only laughed.

"How is it?" asked Lola.

"Dandy!" cried her brother. "You girls take a ride now!"

Rather timidly at first, Janet and Lola went down the incline one at a
time, but they soon grew bolder and liked it as much as did the boys. It
really was lots of fun, and as the boards became more slippery when
partly covered with flakes of paraffine from the candles the coasting
was swifter.

"Now let's have a real race!" cried Ted, after they had been sliding for
some time. "I mean let's see who can go farthest from the end of the
slide."

They took turns at this, one at a time coasting down the wooden hill and
marking where the sleds landed on the grass. Tom and Ted seemed able to
make their sleds jump farther than did the girls.

"I beat!" cried Tom, pointing to the mark his sled had made on the
grass, after jumping up and away from the little end bump of the slide.

"You did not! My sled went farther!" shouted Ted. "Here, girls, I'll
leave it to you!"

The four were trying to decide who had