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Updated: June 6, 2025
Rychie, Hilda, and Katrinka why, they had scarcely known any other thought than "The race, the race. It will come off on the twentieth!" These three girls were friends. Though of nearly the same age, talent, and station, they were as different as girls could be. Hilda van Gleck, as you already know, was a warm-hearted, noble girl of fourteen.
Peter van Holp, also, is a married man. I could have told you before that he and Hilda would join hands and glide through life together, just as years ago they skimmed side by side over the frozen sunlit river. At one time, I came near hinting that Katrinka and Carl would join hands. It is fortunate that the report was not started, for Katrinka changed her mind and is single to this day.
"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?" she asked. "All of us," answered Rychie.
Matilda, who lived in the bare cottage, was sour and disagreeable, while Katrinka was happy and cheery.
Then Katrinka stole softly up to Matilda's stoop and stamped her feet. Matilda sat scowling by the dark window a long time before she finally went to the door, for she was very peevish. "This is a fine time to come stamping upon a person's stoop!" she scolded, as Katrinka walked into the living room. "Oh, sister," Katrinka cried, as she tried to kiss Matilda.
One of the twins was Matilda and the other Katrinka and they were as much alike on the outside as their two cottages were alike; but as their two cottages differed, so did the two twins differ. Matilda could not be told from Katrinka should you just see them walking down the street, but the minute either of them spoke you would know which was Matilda and which was Katrinka.
And as they were talking, there came a noise at the front stoop. "Shall I go to the door, Matilda?" asked Katrinka. "No, I will go, Katrinka!" Matilda replied, her face alight with happiness. So Matilda welcomed her guests as cheerily as Katrinka had done the evening before and the laughter lasted until 'way in the night.
There are new faces among the foremost eager, glowing faces, unnoticed before. Katrinka is there, and Hilda, but Gretel and Rychie are in the rear. Gretel is wavering, but when Rychie passes her, she starts forward afresh. Now they are nearly beside Katrinka. Hilda is still in advance, she is almost "home."
Something red, that is all. There is a blue spot flitting near it, and a dash of yellow nearer still. Spectators at this end of the line strain their eyes, and wish they had taken their post nearer the flagstaff. The wave of cheers is coming back again. Now we can see. Katrinka is ahead! She passes the Van Holp pavilion. The next is Madame van Gleck's.
Again the eager straining of eyes, again the shouts and cheering, again the thrill of excitement as, after a few moments, four or five, in advance of the rest, come speeding back, nearer, nearer to the white columns. Who is first? Not Rychie, Katrinka, Annie, nor Hilda, nor the girl in yellow, but Gretel Gretel, the fleetest sprite of a girl that ever skated.
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