Claude Merrill, in his occasional visits from Boston, was very much in
evidence at the Saturday evening ice parties. He was not an artist at the
sport himself, but he was especially proficient in the art of strapping on a
lady's skates, and murmuring,--as he adjusted the last buckle,--"The prettiest
foot and ankle on the river!" It cannot be denied that this compliment gave
secret pleasure to the fair village maidens who received it, but it was a
pleasure accompanied by electric shocks of excitement. A girl's foot might
perhaps be mentioned, if a fellow were daring enough, but the line was rigidly
drawn at the ankle, which was not a part of the human frame ever alluded to in
the polite society of Edgewood at that time.
Rose, in her red linsey-woolsey dress and her squirrel furs and cap, was the
life of every gathering, and when Stephen took her hand and they glided
upstream, alone together in the crowd, he used to wish that they might skate
on and on up the crystal ice-path of the river, to the moon itself, whither it
seemed to lead them.
VIII
The Garden of Eden
But the Saco all this time was meditating one of its surprises. The snapping
cold weather and the depth to which the water was frozen were aiding it in its
preparation for the greatest event of the season.
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