Next came Gertrude and Phil, swinging easily along together.
"So glad he is really nice, because he looks so, and it would be so horrid if he were horrid, wouldn't it, Phil? And Bell says he plays—oh, wonderfully, you know."
"Playing isn't everything in the world, Toots! But he does seem to be a good fellow enough. Told us a lot, coming over here, about the way he lived over in Germany. I say! I'd like to go there! Two or three duels every day; great sport, it must be!"
Now it was Willy and Kitty, skating away sturdily, with short, energetic strokes, and holding each other up bravely.
"So he asked me if I would swap with him for another hard one, and I said yes, if it was hard enough; for this Mexican one, you see, was very hard indeed. He said it was.
"So I said all right, hand it over. Well, it was just the end of recess, and he handed it over, all scrumpled up, in a kind of hurry, and I crammed it into my pocket without looking. And when I came to look at it after school, it was a mean old three-cent 'Norji.' So I knocked him down, and it just happened that one of his old teeth was loose, and it came out. I was glad of it, and so were all the fellows, for he meant to cheat, you see; that's why I had the black marks."
Now come Jack and Bell, she a little out of breath, being unused to skating with a giraffe; he all unconscious, discoursing high themes.
"Yes, a good many people play it short, with a kind of choppiness. I hate to hear a violin chop. But J—— gives it with a long, smooth crescendo that seems to carry you straight out of the room, you know, out into the open air, and up among tree-tops. Do you ever feel that way? You seem to feel the air blowing all about you, and—hear all the voices that are shut up in the trees and flowers, and can't get out generally. You know what I mean, I am sure!"
"Yes," says Bell, softly. "But they are all answering to the violin, don't you think? They would not speak to the piano in that way."
"Depends upon who plays it," says gallant Jack. And Hildegarde, close behind, hears, and stumbles a little, and catches Gerald's hand, laughing.