A mischievous idea leaped into her mind, fairly teasing to be put into effect. What fun to climb the forbidden barbed wire fence and honeycomb Mr. Jasko’s field with ski tracks! She could visualize his annoyance when he returned home to learn that a mysterious skier had paid him a visit.
“He oughtn’t to be so mean,” she said aloud to justify herself. “It will serve him right for trying to frighten folks with shotguns!”
Penny fastened on her skis and glided off through the woods. She kept her directions straight and soon emerged into a clearing to find herself in view of the Jasko cabin. Drawing near the barbed wire fence she stopped short and stared.
“Why, that old scamp! He really did it!”
A new strand of wire had been added to the fence, making it many inches higher. Penny’s suggestion, offered as a joke, had been acted upon by Peter Jasko. Not even an expert ski jumper could hope to clear the improved barrier. Any person who came unwittingly down the steep slope must take a disastrous tumble at the base of the fence.
“This settles it,” thought Penny grimly. “My conscience is perfectly clear now.”
She rolled under the fence and surveyed the unblemished expanse of snowy field with the eye of a mechanical draftsman.
“I may as well be honest about it and sign my name,” she chuckled.
Starting in at the far corner of the field she made a huge double-edged “P” with her long runners. It took a little ingenuity to figure out an “E” but two “N’s” were fairly easy to execute. She finished “Y” off with a flourish and cocked her head sideways to view her handiwork.
“Not bad, not bad at all,” she congratulated herself. “Only I’ve used up too much space. We’ll have to have a big Penny and a little Parker.”