'Not in the least; it's a lovely sensation, to some extent' I said. My bones were aching all over, but I was determined to be even with Watson, who had not yet done his share of the entertaining.
Watson gave a glance at the stairs, as though he contemplated a bolt; if he had attempted to escape, I should have done my best to prevent him. Perhaps he read my thoughts in my face; he sighed. Presently the poor wretch was straightened out and started.... It really was very funny, and I no longer wondered at the heartless mirth of the onlookers. A pea on a drumhead is a restful object in comparison with Watson on that ice-hill. His sledge seemed determined from the first moment to rid itself of the unfortunate man clinging to it; it went everywhere and sampled every obstacle, and it shot him eventually, as it had shot me, into a snowheap, with one Chinese lantern twisted by its strings round his neck, and another, held by the post, in his hand. Watson did not know how they got there.
Watson and I solemnly shook hands; we were the gladiators of the occasion, and sympathised with one another. Three or four times did we suffer for the delight of the crowd; after that we began to become uninteresting to them, partly because we had carried away all the Chinese lanterns, and partly because we had begun to learn the art.
MORNING.
ULLO!' the Blackbird carolled.
'Hullo!' the Woods replied,
'The sun that set in the West last night
Comes up on the other side.'
'Wake! wake!' the Starling chattered,
'For the hand of rising day
Has gripped one edge of the blanket night
And is rolling it all away.'
'Up! up!' the Robin whistled,
'For the Lady Dawn, so bright,
Has come to the broad, dark face of earth,
And is washing it all with light.'
'Out! out!' sang the joyous chorus:
'With a hand of magic care,
She's been to the nooks and corners dark
And scrubbed out the shadows there.'
And then upon snowy pillows
There glittered the blinking sun,
And a thousand thousand eyes awoke
To another day begun.