"Don't you be one bit afraid. I never had an accident sliding and I've
always done it every winter since I can remember. We're off! Bow your
head a little and--keep--your--mouth--shut!"

There wasn't time! Dorothy felt a little quiver run through the thing
on which she sat and a wild rush through icy air! That was all! They
had reached the bottom of the first slide and began to fly upward over
the other before she realized a thing. Gwen hadn't even finished her
directions before they had "arrived!"

The Southerner was too amazed, for a second, to even step off the
toboggan, but Gwendolyn caught her up, gave her a hearty kiss and hug,
and demanded:

"Well! Here we are! How do you like it! We've beat! We've beat!"

Dorothy rubbed her eyes. So they had, for at that instant the big Oak
Knowe fetched up beside them, and its occupants stepped or tumbled
off, throwing up their hands and cheering:

"Three cheers for the Dorothy Calvert! Queen of the Slide for all This
Year!"

And liveliest among the cheerers was the once so dignified young
"Peer," the Honorable Gwen. Dorothy looking into her beaming face and
hearing her happy voice could scarce believe this to be the same girl
she had hitherto known. But she had scant time to think for here they
came, thick and fast, toboggan after toboggan, Seventh Form girls and
Minims, teachers and pupils, the Bishop and the _chef_, maids and
men-servants, the matron and old Michael--all in high spirits, all
apparently talking at once and so many demanding of "Miss Dixie" how
she liked it, that she could answer nobody.

Then the Bishop pushed back her tasseled hood and smiled into her
shining eyes:

"Well little 'Betty the Second,' can you beat that down at old
Baltimore? What do you think now? Isn't it fine--fine? Doesn't it make
you feel you're a bird of the air? Ah! it's grand--grand. Just tell me
you like it and I'll let you go."

"I--Yes--I reckon I do! I hadn't time to think. We hadn't started, and
we were here."

"Up we go. Try her again!" cried one, and the climb back to the top
promptly began, the men carrying the heavier sleds, the girls their
lighter ones, Gwendolyn and Dorothy their own between them. Then the
fun all over again; the jests at awkward starts, the cheers at
skillful ones, the laughter and good will, till all felt the
exhilaration of the moment and every care was forgotten.

Many a slide was taken and now Dorothy could answer when asked did she
lik