Mary Mapes Dodge

“ Hans turned the money thoughtfully in his palm. Never in all his life, had he longed so intensely for a pair of skates, for he had known of the race and had, boy-like, fairly ached for a chance to test his powers with the other children. He felt confident that with good pair of steel runners, he could readily distance most of the boys on the canal. Then, too, Gretel's argument was so plausible. On the other hand, he knew that she, with her strong but lithe little frame, needed but a week's practice on good runners, to make her a better skater than Rychie Korbes or even Katrinka Flack. ”

“ HANS AND GRETEL FIND A FRIEND.
At noon our young friends poured forth from the school-house intent upon having an hour's practicing 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 rag-pickers! 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." ”