deep rumble warned her that a snowslide was approaching. She had only
the briefest moment to decide what to do--if she retraced her steps she
must surely be overtaken! Near her was a tall crag of rock that jutted
out from the wooded slope of the trail; on this she might be safe. With
desperate haste she climbed it and, as she clung to its rough surface,
tons of ice and snow thundered past her, shaking her stronghold,
uprooting the smaller trees, piling in fantastic shapes against the
sturdier. As Jerry watched it had been fascination, not terror, that had
caught the breath in her throat; she had not recognized the threat of
Death; she had glimpsed only the picture of her beloved Kettle angrily
shaking old Winter from his mighty shoulders.

So, as Jerry sat there in the study-room, her frowning eyes focussed on
a spot straight ahead of her, her spirit slowly rose to meet the
challenge of the debate. These others had all had to live through their
"first," ease had come to them only with practice, she reminded herself.

It was pleasantly exciting, too, to be surrounded, after school, by a
group of interested schoolmates, each with a suggestion.

"Just keep your hands tight behind your back," offered one.

"I 'most choked to death in one debate," recalled Peggy Lee, laughing.
"I had a cough-drop in my mouth to make my voice smooth and when it came
my turn I was so scared I couldn't swallow it and there I had to talk
with that thing in my cheek, and every minute or two it'd get out and
'most strangle me! Oh, it was dreadful. I don't believe that story about
Demosthenes and the pebble."

"I'd get some famous orator's speeches and practice 'em. It makes what
you say sound grand!"

"Don't _look_ at anybody--just keep your eyes way up," declared Pat
Everett, whose experience went no farther than reciting four French
verses before a room full of fond parents, at Miss Prindle's
boarding-school.

All of this advice Jerry took solemnly to heart. Gyp volunteered to help
her. Gyp was far more concerned that she should practice the arts of
oratory than that she should build up convincing arguments for her side
of the question. From the Westley library Gyp dug out a volume of
"Famous Speeches by Famous Men." Curled in the deep rocker in Jerry's
room she searched its pages.

"Listen, Jerry--isn't this grand? 'Let us pause, friends, let us feel
the fluttering of the heart that preceded the battle, let us hear the
order to advance