Page:Girls of Central High on the Stage.djvu/159

Rh than a dozen girls of Central High piled into a big, straw-filled sleigh, and were whisked out into the hills south of the city. The inn at Robinson's Woods—a popular picnicking ground in summer—was made their headquarters, and there they left the sleigh and took to the difficult skis.

The climb to the top of the bluff overlooking the speedway, on which everybody—almost—who owned a sleigh was driving that afternoon, was not an easy one for the girls. Mrs. Case, holding her body erect, yet easily, shuffled up the incline with such little apparent effort that some of her pupils were in despair.

"We'll never be able to run as you do, Mrs. Case!" cried Dora Lockwood. "Never! Why—ouch! There, I came near tumbling down that time."

"Keep your balance. Use the pole if you have to," advised the instructor. "It is not a running motion—it is more like a slide."

"Say!" growled Bobby, who was having trouble, too. "It beats the 'debutante slink,' that came in with narrow skirts. I feel as if I was tumbling down every second."

But they gained confidence in time. They reached the top of the bluff and then the long, easy slope, right beside the speedway, spread,