skets upon their heads, and plump little
toddlers on skates clutching at their mothers' gowns. Some women carried
their babies upon their backs, firmly secured with a bright shawl. The
effect was pretty and graceful as they darted by or sailed slowly past,
now nodding to an acquaintance, now chirruping and throwing soft baby
talk to the muffled little ones they carried.

Boys and girls were chasing each other and hiding behind the one-horse
sleds that, loaded high with peat or timber, pursued their cautious
way along the track marked out as "safe." Beautiful, queenly women were
there, enjoyment sparkling in their quiet eyes. Sometimes a long file
of young men, each grasping the coat of the one before him, flew by with
electric speed; and sometimes the ice squeaked under the chair of some
gorgeous old dowager, or rich burgomaster's lady, who, very red in the
nose and sharp in the eyes, looked like a scare-thaw invented by old
Father Winter for the protection of his skating grounds. The chair would
be heavy with foot stoves and cushions, to say nothing of the old lady.
Mounted upon shining runners, it slid along, pushed by the sleepiest of
servants, who, looking neither to the right nor the left, bent himself
to his task while she cast direful glances upon the screaming little
rowdies who invariably acted as bodyguard.

As for the men, they were pictures of placid enjoyment. Some were
attired in ordinary citizen's dress, but many looked odd enough with
their short woolen coats, wide breeches, and big silver buckles. These
seemed to Ben like little boys who had, by a miracle, sprung suddenly
into manhood and were forced to wear garments that their astonished
mothers had altered in a hurry. He noticed, too, that nearly all the
men had pipes as they passed him, whizzing and smoking like so many
locomotives. There was every variety of pipes, from those of common clay
to the most expensive meerschaums mounted in silver and gold. Some were
carved into extraordinary and fantastic shapes, representing birds,
flowers, heads, bugs, and dozens of other things; some resembled the
"Dutchman's pipe" that grows in our American woods; some were red and
many were of a pure, snowy white; but the most respectable were those
which were ripening into a shaded brown. The deeper and richer the
brown, of course, the more honored the pipe, for it was proof that the
owner, if honestly shading it, was deliberately devoting his manhood
to the effor