Otto disdainfully turned his back upon Chappi and went toward the girl, who was standing knee-deep in the snowdrift. "Come out of the snow, Wiseli," he said gently. "Is it true that you have no sled?"
"I was only looking at the rest," she answered timidly.
"Take mine and go down once," said Otto. "Hurry, for they are going to start in a minute."
Wiseli glanced quickly at Chappi, afraid that he would interfere with her going, but the boy seemed to have forgotten all about her. Otto helped her to seat herself on the sled, and the next minute she was going down the hill behind the others.
Wiseli had watched them for ten or fifteen minutes, and had secretly wished that she might be allowed to sit on one of the large sleds used to carry several at a time, but to go down alone was more than she had even hoped for; besides, this was the prettiest sled of all. It had a lion's head for the front decoration, and was finished with steel runners and made of light material so that it beat all the others in a race.
It seemed to Otto but a moment before the party returned, so he shouted, "Stay in line, Wiseli, and go down once more."
Wiseli immediately turned her sled and gladly led the line down the hill. She murmured timid thanks to Otto when she returned with the sled, but the happy, flushed face would have satisfied him even if she had said nothing. She heard Otto calling his sister as she started homeward through the panting crowd.
"Here I am!" and a plump, rosy-cheeked little girl came to him with her sled. Otto took his sister's warm little hand in his and they hastened home. They had spent much more than the allotted time to-night, but they had enjoyed themselves too much to entertain any regrets whatever.