Westmore, and the boys began to snatch up
their coats and mufflers.

"Be off with you--I'll look after the sleds," Amherst called to them as
they dispersed; then he turned for a moment to see that the skaters
below were also heeding the summons.

A cold pallor lay on the river-banks and on the low meadow beneath the
knoll; but the woodland opposite stood black against scarlet vapours
that ravelled off in sheer light toward a sky hung with an icy moon.

Amherst drew up the sled and held it steady while Bessy, seating
herself, tucked her furs close with little breaks of laughter; then he
placed himself in front.

"Ready?" he cried over his shoulder, and "Ready!" she called back.

Their craft quivered under them, hanging an instant over the long
stretch of whiteness below; the level sun dazzled their eyes, and the
first plunge seemed to dash them down into darkness. Amherst heard a cry
of glee behind him; then all sounds were lost in the whistle of air
humming by like the flight of a million arrows. They had dropped below
the sunset and were tearing through the clear nether twilight of the
descent; then, with a bound, the sled met the level, and shot away
across the meadow toward the opposite height. It seemed to Amherst as
though his body had been left behind, and only the spirit in him rode
the wild blue currents of galloping air; but as the sled's rush began to
slacken with the strain of the last ascent he was recalled to himself by
the touch of the breathing warmth at his back. Bessy had put out a hand
to steady herself, and as she leaned forward, gripping his arm, a flying
end of her furs swept his face. There was a delicious pang in being thus
caught back to life; and as the sled stopped, and he sprang to his feet,
he still glowed with the sensation. Bessy too was under the spell. In
the dusk of the beech-grove where they had landed, he could barely
distinguish her features; but her eyes shone on him, and he heard her
quick breathing as he stooped to help her to her feet.

"Oh, how beautiful--it's the only thing better than a good gallop!"

She leaned against a tree-bole, panting a little, and loosening her
furs.

"What a pity it's too dark to begin again!" she sighed, looking about
her through the dim weaving of leafless boughs.

"It's not so dark in the open--we might have one more," he proposed; but
she shook her head, seized by a new whim.

"It's so still and delicious in here--did you hear the snow f