"Oh, what a nifty lot of ice!" exclaimed Ted.

And the sloping boards of the toboggan slide were covered with a film
that glistened and sparkled in the sun. The morning air was cold, too,
and the boys felt sure the ice that had formed from the water they
poured on would not soon melt.

"Come on, Janet!" cried Tom, after breakfast. "Now you can have a real
toboggan ride!"

"Me, too!" called Trouble, banging his oatmeal spoon on his plate.

"After a while, dear. You aren't dressed yet," his mother told the
little fellow.

Indeed the toboggan was a real hill of ice now, though the frozen
covering was thin. And the children had many fine coasts on it, for the
sleds went faster than when greased with candles.

Lola Taylor came over, and so did other playmates of the Curlytops, and
you can be sure that after this the thin coating of ice on the boards
did not last long. It began to wear off and wear thin, first in one
place and then in another, the rising sun helping to melt it. And before
noon there was no ice left.

However, the boys and girls had had lots of jolly good fun, and Trouble
also had his share. As the boards, once they were wet from the melting
ice, were too sticky for the candle-greased sleds to coast on, the fun
had to be given up just before noon.

But after dinner Tom and Ted found something else that gave them an
adventure. A little brook ran through a meadow, not far from the home of
the Curlytops, and on a part of this that was in the shadow from a hill
there was some ice that was quite thick, and it remained unmelted, as
the sun did not shine on it.

"Oh, look!" cried Ted, as the two chums, wandering through the meadow in
search of fun, saw the ice. "Look! We can have a slide!"

"Will it hold?" asked Tom.

"Sure! Look at Skyrocket!" answered Ted.

The dog had walked out on the thin ice which held him up. But the boys
did not stop to think that Skyrocket was not as heavy as either of them.
Also Skyrocket was on four feet, and his weight was more scattered,
being distributed over a larger surface than theirs would be. But Tom
and Ted never thought of this. Ice that would hold Skyrocket would hold
them, they thought.

In another instant they had walked out on it and were just going to run
and take a little slide when there was a cracking sound, and, before
they knew it, both lads had plunged into the brook at one of the deep
parts.

"Oh! Oh!" cried Tom and Ted together, for they were qui