Before long our merry boys and girls were almost lost in the confusion of bright colors, the ceaseless motion, and the gleaming of skates flashing back the sunlight. We might have known no more of them had not the whole party suddenly come to a standstill[35] and, grouping themselves out of the way of the passersby, all talked at once to a pretty little maiden, whom they had drawn from the tide of people flowing toward the town.
“Oh, Katrinka!” they cried in one breath, “have you heard of it? The race – we want you to join!”
“What race?” asked Katrinka, laughing. “Don’t all talk at once, please, I can’t understand.”
Everyone panted and looked at Rychie Korbes, who was their acknowledged spokeswoman.
“Why,” said Rychie, “we are to have a grand skating match on the twentieth, on Mevrouw[36] van Gleck’s birthday. It’s all Hilda’s work. They are going to give a splendid prize to the best skater.”
“Yes,” chimed in half a dozen voices, “a beautiful pair of silver skates – perfectly magnificent – with, oh! such straps and silver bells and buckles!”
“WHO said they had bells?” put in a small voice of the boy with the big name.
“I say so, Master Voost,” replied Rychie.
“So they have”; “No, I’m sure they haven’t”; “OH, how can you say so?”; “It’s an arrow”; “And Mynheer van Korbes told MY mother they had bells” – came from the excited group, but Mynheer Voostenwalbert Schimmelpenninck essayed to settle the matter with a decisive “Well, you don’t any of you know a single thing about it; they haven’t a sign of a bell on them, they – ”
“Oh! oh!” and the chorus of conflicting opinions broke forth again.
“The girls’ pair is to have bells,” interposed Hilda quietly, “but there is to be another pair for the boys with an arrow engraved upon the sides.”
“THERE! I told you so!” cried nearly all the youngsters in one breath.
Katrinka looked at them with bewildered eyes.
“Who is to try?[37]” she asked.
“All of us,” answered Rychie. “It will be such fun! And you must, too, Katrinka. But it’s schooltime now, we will talk it all over at noon. Oh! you will join, of course.”
Katrinka, without replying, made a graceful pirouette and laughing out a coquettish, “Don’t you hear the last bell? Catch me!” darted off toward the schoolhouse standing half a mile away on the canal.
All started, pell-mell, at this challenge, but they tried in vain to catch the bright-eyed, laughing creature who, with golden hair streaming in the sunlight, cast back many a sparkling glance of triumph as she floated onward.
Beautiful Katrinka! Flushed with youth and health, all life and mirth and motion, what wonder thine image, ever floating in advance, sped through one boy’s dreams that night! What wonder that it seemed his darkest hour when, years afterward, thy presence floated away from him forever.
Hans and Gretel Find a Friend
At noon our young friends poured forth from the schoolhouse, intent upon having an hour’s practice upon the canal.
They had skated but a few moments when Carl Schummel said mockingly to Hilda, “There’s a pretty pair just coming upon the ice! The little ragpickers![38] Their skates must have been a present from the king direct.”
“They are patient creatures,” said Hilda gently. “It must have been hard to learn to skate upon such queer affairs. They are very poor peasants, you see. The boy has probably made the skates himself.”
Carl was somewhat abashed.
“Patient they may be, but as for skating, they start off pretty well, only to finish with a jerk. They could move well to your new staccato piece, I think.”
Hilda laughed pleasantly and left him. After joining a small detachment of the racers and sailing past every one of them, she halted beside Gretel, who, with eager eyes, had been watching the sport.
“What is your name, little girl?”
“Gretel, my lady,” answered the child, somewhat awed by Hilda’s rank, though they were nearly of the same age, “and my brother is called Hans.”
“Hans is a stout fellow,” said Hilda cheerily, “and seems to have a warm stove somewhere within him, but YOU look cold. You should wear more clothing, little one.”
Gretel, who had nothing else to wear, tried to laugh as she answered, “I am not so very little. I am past twelve years old.”
“Oh, I beg your pardon. You see, I am nearly fourteen, and so large for my age that other girls seem small to me, but that is nothing. Perhaps you will shoot up far above me yet, but not unless you dress more warmly, though. Shivering girls never grow.”
Hans flushed as he saw tears rising in Gretel’s eyes.
“My sister has not complained of the cold, but this is bitter weather, they all say.” And he looked sadly upon Gretel.
“It is nothing[39],” said Gretel. “I am often warm – too warm when I am skating. You are good, jufvrouw[40], to think of it.”
“No, no,” answered Hilda, quite angry at herself. “I am careless, cruel, but I meant no harm. I wanted to ask you – I mean, if – ” And here Hilda, coming to the point of her errand, faltered before the poorly clad but noble-looking children she wished to serve.
“What is it, young lady?” exclaimed Hans eagerly. “If there is any service I can do, any – ”
“Oh, no, no,” laughed Hilda, shaking off her embarrassment. “I only wished to speak to you about the grand race. Why do you not join it? You both can skate well, and the ranks are free[41]. Anyone may enter for the prize.”
Gretel looked wistfully at Hans, who, tugging at his cap, answered respectfully.
“Ah, jufvrouw, even if we could enter, we could skate only a few strokes with the rest. Our skates are hard wood, you see” – holding up the sole of his foot – “but they soon become damp, and then they stick and trip us.”
Gretel’s eyes twinkled with fun as she thought of Hans’s mishap in the morning, but she blushed as she faltered out timidly, “Oh, no, we can’t join, but may we be there, my lady, on the great day to look on?”
“Certainly,” answered Hilda, looking kindly into the two earnest faces and wishing from her heart that she had not spent so much of her monthly allowance for lace and finery. She had but eight kwartjes[42] left, and they would buy but one pair of skates, at the furthest.
Looking down with a sigh at the two pairs of feet so very different in size, she asked:
“Which of you is the better skater?”
“Gretel,” replied Hans promptly.
“Hans,” answered Gretel in the same breath.
Hilda smiled.
“I cannot buy you each a pair of skates, or even one good pair, but here are eight kwartjes. Decide between you which stands the best chance of winning the race, and buy the skates accordingly. I wish I had enough to buy better ones. Good-bye!” And, with a nod and a smile, Hilda, after handing the money to the electrified Hans, glided swiftly away to rejoin her companions.
“Jufvrouw! Jufvrouw van Gleck!” called Hans in a loud tone, stumbling after her as well as he could, for one of his skate strings was untied.
Hilda turned and, with one hand raised to shield her eyes from the sun, seemed to him to be floating through the air, nearer and nearer.
“We cannot take this money,” panted Hans, “though we know your goodness in giving it.”
“Why not, indeed?” asked Hilda, flushing.
“Because,” replied Hans, bowing like a clown but looking with the eye of a prince at the queenly girl, “we have not earned it.”
Hilda was quick-witted. She had noticed a pretty wooden chain upon Gretel’s neck.
35
had not the whole party suddenly come to a standstill – (
42