Page:Cornelia Meigs-The Pirate of Jasper Peak.djvu/233

 up at Oscar’s snowshoes hanging on the wall.

“There is only one pair,” observed Hugh. “We can’t both go.”

“Then,” said Dick, and neither had occasion to tell the other that a final conclusion had been  reached, “then we will have to draw straws. And it is very generous of me to give you even a chance, because I know I am better on snowshoes than you.”

“I have tried them in the Adirondacks,” Hugh replied. “I am not so clumsy with them as you seem to think. Well, straws it is. The longest one goes.”

They arranged the straws with great show of fairness and secrecy and drew.

“Oh, Hugh, you have all the luck!” exclaimed Dick in bitter disappointment as he gazed at his  abbreviated straw and at Hugh’s irrepressible  grin of satisfaction.

“It is really better,” was Hugh’s answer, in which he tried to keep the excited delight from  his tone. “We have not either of us come through this last week feeling any too husky, but