"Guess it isn't quite the first skatin' she ever did," said Mrs. Stebbins; "but Vosh'll ketch her, now, you see'f he don't."
Susie had somehow got it into her head that she did not mean to be caught, and her practice was all in her favor; but just as she reached the head of the pond, and made a quick turn into the winding channel of the river, Vosh came swinging along at her side, and for a little distance he did not speak a word to her.
"Vosh," she said, after trying very hard to think of something else to say, "I wish you'd teach me to skate."
A ringing laugh was all his answer for a moment, and then he remarked innocently,—
"The ice is smoother up this way, but I mustn't let you get too far from the folks. Tire you all out skating back again."
On they went, while all the people they had left behind them, except their own, were inquiring of each other who the young lady could be that had so astonished them.
Oddly enough, the Benton girls had omitted skating from their list of accomplishments, by a kind of common consent; and Susie's bit of fun had a surprise in it for others besides Vosh and her aunts. It was quite likely she would have imitators thereafter, but she had made an unexpected sensation that evening.
Even Port had surprised Corry and the Benton boys, although some of them were every way his equals on the ice.
"Now, Vosh," remarked Susie at the end of nearly a mile of that crooked ice-path, "we'd better go back. Are you tired?"
"Tired! I could skate all night. We'd better go, though, or aunt Judith'll borrow a pair, and come skating along after us."