“Why, so I am! Why, so I did!” said Faith. “Well, I like secrets that end this way. May I go skating right away, Aunt Prissy?”
“Breakfast first!” laughed Aunt Prissy, and was out of the room before Faith had noticed that lying across the foot of her bed was a dress of pretty plaided blue and brown wool. A slip of paper was pinned to it: “For Faith to wear skating,” she read.
“Lovely! Lovely!” exclaimed Faith, as she hastened to dress in front of the blazing fire.
“Why, here are new stockings, too,” she said, as she discovered a pair of warm knit brown and blue stockings.
She came running into the dining-room, skates in hand, to be met by her uncle and little cousins with birthday greetings. Donald had at last finished the bow and arrows that he had promised her weeks before, and now gave them to her; Hugh had made a “quiver,” a little case to hold the arrows, such as the Indians use, of birch bark, and little Philip had a dish filled with molasses candy, which he had helped to make.
It was a beautiful morning for Faith, and the broiled chicken and hot corn cake gave the breakfast an added sense of festivity.
Soon after breakfast Mr. Scott, Donald and Faith were ready to start for the lake. Donald took his sled along. “So we can draw Cousin Faith home, if she gets tired,” he explained, with quite an air of being older and stronger than his cousin.
Aunt Prissy watched them start off, thinking to herself that Faith had never looked so pretty as she did in the fur coat and cap, with her skates swinging from her arm, the bright steel catching the rays of sunlight.
They crossed the road, and went down the field to the shore. The hard crust gave Faith and Donald a fine coast down the slope, and both the children exclaimed with delight when Mr. Scott, running and sliding, reached the shore almost as soon as they did.
Mr. Scott fastened on Faith’s skates, and held up by her uncle on one side and Donald on the other, Faith ventured out on the dark, shining ice. After a few lurches and tumbles, she found that she could stand alone, and in a short time could skate a little.