“Gee, isn’t it cold,” said Fred, as the Williamson automobile disappeared around the turn in Elm Road. “I’ll bet you it is thirty degrees below zero.”
Mr. Larue overheard him and laughed.
“You wouldn’t be standing there so complacently, Fred, if it were as cold as that,” he said. “This is just good skating weather.”
It was so cold and clear that Jess declared she saw “miles and miles” when she looked across the river, now frozen over. The ground was covered with snow, of course, and at every step this crunched under foot. When a wagon went past the wheels screeched, a sure sign of a cold day.
“Isn’t it great!” bubbled Ward. “We have new skates and there’ll be skating as soon as they get the river swept off; there isn’t any school, so we can have all the fun we want; and there’s good coasting, too, and some of us have new sleds. And I haven’t eaten all my candy up, either,” he added.
“You’re one satisfied person,” commented Fred, blinking, for the sun on the snow was dazzling. “Let’s go down and watch them sweep off the river. Maybe they won’t let us on yet.”
But “they” were willing for River Bend folk to go skating, for the ice was firm and thick. Later it would be cut to fill ice-houses, but as a rule the children could count on good skating through January. A group of men were busily at work this morning, with brooms, brushes and horse-drawn scrapers, taking the snow off the ice and getting it ready for the skaters. The sun was helping, too, and the Riddle Club members decided that by noon the river would be in fine condition.
“We’re going up to the pond, Mother,” said Polly, at the lunch table. “No, we’ll not be cold. You never get cold skating.”
“Don’t be late for supper,” cautioned Mrs. Marley. “And be sure you are dressed warmly. It will be much colder toward night.”
“It’s cold enough now,” grumbled Margy, who would have liked to go skating in July, if that had been possible.