“Oh, Teddy, can’t we stop?” asked Billie at last, unable to keep her fright all to herself. “We don’t know where this leads to. Can’t you stop, Teddy?”
“Not very well,” answered the boy uneasily. “We will surely run on to level ground in a minute. Don’t worry.”
But even as he spoke he jerked the sled around a sudden turn in the path and they came, apparently, to the end of the world. With a nasty little scraping sound the sled dived off into nothingness!
It all happened so suddenly that Billie did not have even time enough to scream. She had a sickening feeling of falling through space, and then she struck something—something that yielded, luckily, under her weight, and she sank, down, down, down, coming to rest at last in a world where everything was white and slippery and cold—oh, so cold.
She must have lost consciousness for a minute, for when she came to herself again in this strange new world she heard somebody calling her name wildly and a moment later Santa Claus poked his head over a snowbank and peered down at her.
At least, she thought at first it was Santa Claus, because his face was so very red and the snow was clinging to his fuzzy cap in such a funny manner.
But in a moment more she realized her mistake, for the red face and the funny hat disappeared and in their place were shoved two legs that she was very sure belonged to Teddy. And in a moment more Teddy himself slid down beside her.
“Hello,” she greeted him with a smile. “I thought you were Santa Claus. Why weren’t you?”
Teddy stared at her for a minute, anxiously.
“I say,” he cried, taking one of her hands and rubbing it gently. “I guess that loop the loop of ours knocked you silly.”