d women as their toboggan coursed laughing and screaming in merriment
down to the river where it pitched swiftly again down to the ice. Here
at the Gorka as at "the merry-go-round," the promenade near Sabornya,
the doughboy learned how to put the right persuasion into his voice as
he said Mozhna, barishna, meaning: Will you take a slide or walk with
me, little girl? At Christmas, New Year's and St. Patrick's Day, they
had special entertainments. Late in March "I" Company three times
repeated its grand minstrel show.

Many a doughboy in Archangel, Kholmogora, Yemetskoe, Onega or Pinega, at
one time or another during the long winter, got a chance to ride with
the Russian Eskimo and his reindeer. Doughboys who were supporting the
artillery the day that the enemy moved on Chertkva and threatened
Peligorskaya, can recall seeing the double sled teams of reindeer that
came flashing up through the lines with the American commanding officer
who had been urgently called for by the Russian officer at Peligorskaya.
Sergeant Kant will never forget that wild ride. He sat on the rear sled,
or rather he clung to the top of it during that hour's ride of twelve
miles. The wise old buck reindeer who was hitched as a rudder to the
rear of his sled would brace and pull back to keep the sergeant's sled
from snapping the whip at the turns, and that would lift the sled clear
from the surface. And when the old buck was not steering the sled but
trotting with leaping strides behind the sled then the bumps in the road
bounced the sled high. Out in front the reindeer team of three strained
against their simple harness and supplied the rapid succession of jerks
that flew the sleds along toward the embattled artillery. The reindeer
travelled with tongues hanging out as if in distress; they panted; they
steamed and coated with frost; they thrust their muzzles into the
cooling snow to slake their thirst; but they were enjoying the wild run;
they fairly skimmed over the snow trail. The Eskimo driver called his
peculiar moaning cry to urge them on, slapped his lead reindeer with the
single rein that was fastened to his left antler, or prodded his team on
the haunches with the long pole which he carried for that purpose and
for steering his light sled, and with surprising nimbleness leaped on
and off his sled as he guided the sled past or over obstructions. A
snow-covered log across the trail caused no delay. A leap of three
antlered forms, twelve grey le