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"'So I puts on a pair of them long, slidin' snowshoes they call 'skees' and slips for William Pemberton and the lonesome mountains. People don't call a thing 'skee' unless they hev good reason for it. Before I caught the hang of them durn disconnected bob-sleds I saw where the 'skee' come in.
"The overlapping of one skee over the other is quite common with a beginner," said my teacher to me. Putting my skees in position again, we started. This time one of my skees left me. Several times the two left me, and I found myself seated on the snow every time. I made slow progress that day. At the end of the lesson Joseff said, "Do not be discouraged, Paulus, you will soon learn the knack.
When we reached the lake Joseff said, "Put your feet under the loops, and you must manage to keep them there, just as you would do if you had an old pair of slippers much too large for you. You would have all the time to push your feet forward to keep them on. Do likewise with the skees. Your sharp-pointed Lapp shoes will help you to do this, as they somewhat prevent the slipping of the skee.
One of the Indians fell on it and smothered the flames, and the struggling and diabolical yelling went on in the dark. As suddenly as the plan of making the skee sled had flashed upon me came another plan for driving every Indian out of town. I jumped up and ran away as fast as a poor crutch and a leg and a half could carry me.
Even Nellie insisted on hiring a pair. And the pronunciation of the word "ski" aroused long discussions and was never definitely settled by anybody. The Captain said "skee," but he did not object to "shee," which was said to be the more strictly correct by a lady who knew some one who had been to Norway. People with no shame and no feeling for correctness said brazenly, "sky."
"Skee!" The sudden fall of a fragment of rock from the face of the crag to the ground far below! the interval of time between the scraping dislodgment and the impact with the clay beneath implies a proportional interval of distance. The conviction is the same in the mind of each. A living creature is climbing the ascent! A bear, it may be.
After going some distance he returned to me, and we started slowly together. I pushed first one foot then the other forward, and tried to do exactly what he had told me to do; but before I knew it the end of one skee overlapped the other and stopped my advance at once. Fortunately I was going slowly, otherwise I should have landed on the snow.
Then like a bird of prey he made for the other wolf. The animal stood still, ready to bite him, but the Lapp passed by him like a flash and gave him a terrible blow on his mouth which broke his teeth. Then after he had stopped the speed of his skees, he turned back and gave him his deathblow. After he had taken breath, he said to me, "Paulus, wait here, for you cannot 'skee' fast enough.
They are used in the spring when the snow is soft and becomes watery; the skin prevents the snow from sticking to the skee." The following morning we started with our skees for the lake, I carrying mine on my shoulders.
"And my 'skee!" he patted the decanter. Madeline King put her arms about Honor. "Come away, my dear," she said. "Come upstairs." "No," Jimsy protested. "Don' go 'way. Got somep'n tell you. Shee this fool Injun here? Know wha' he's goin' do? Goin' slide out'n creep down to ol' well.
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