bordered blanket costumes, the gay toques and sashes, the broidered moccasins, the vari-
colored mittens, all worn alike by lads and lasses, the glitter of snows beneath thousands
of artificial lights, and beyond it all the black sky line of cedars along the mountain crest,
and, far alofi in the frozen heavens the white gleam of stars, scintillating from everlasting
to everlasting.

In an incredibly short time our turn came. They tucked me well in to the bow, packed
three others on behind me, down on one knee flopped our agile steerer, and we were off--
slowly, slowly at first, with a subtle, deadly sort of movement, like the waters creeping
fatefully to the brink of Niagara; then with a quick, sharp flash down the “shute”[sic], and
we whizzed through a world of light to the crest of the first dip.

“Hang on now!” was all I heard from somewhere aft of me, and the next instant we
dropped, down, down, a seemingly endless abyss, while the lights flashed by like the teeth
of a comb, and we sped along something like horizontally again.

“Look out now, and hang on; we’re going to jump the second dip!”

Hardly had the words reached my [ears] before the toboggan leapt four feet into the air,
struck the track, flat as the proverbial pancake, about fifteen feet beyond, and careened
madly, wildly onward, sla[ck]ing gently and reluctantly a half mile further on. The instant
we stopped stalwart arms assisted us to scramble out of the way before the next toboggan
came crashing down. I had not time to think of that headlong plunge, of my fiozen brain,
of my hands strained with their desperate clutch on the ropes. The big steerer hurried me
into a warm, bright booth, where girls with glowing cheeks and sparkling eyes were
drinking hot, savory beef tea. They gave me a large bOWlfi.ll, which I swallowed gladly
while they told me a story of an American who had taken his first trip down the previous
day. ‘

“I would not have missed that ride for a thousand dollars,” he remarked to the gallant
young Montrealer who piloted him.

“I’m glad you like it,” laughed the latter “get warmed up now and we’ll try it again.”
“No, thank you,” replied the visitor, “I would not take that trip again for $10,000.”

Nor would he, despite all coaxing, “for,” said he, “I have a wife and children in Baltimore-
-and they need me.”

On the return tramp I thought of the Chinaman, who, when asked what he thought of
tobogganing, said: “It’s just swir-r-r! walkee backee millee.” But that same walk back is
what puts the life into you, that warms every particle of your body to blood heat, that
sends young life and vigor bounding through your veins in a way that defies cold and
danger, and intoxicates you into the state of pluck and fearlessness requisite to repeat the
whirlwind ride.