IV.
HANS AND GRETEL FIND A FRIEND.
At noon our young friends poured forth from the school-house intent upon having an hour's practicing upon the canal.
They had skated but a few moments when Carl Schummel said mockingly to Hilda:
"There's a pretty pair just coming upon the ice! The little rag-pickers! Their skates must have been a present from the king direct.
They are patient creatures," said Hilda, gently. "It must have been hard to learn to skate upon such queer affairs. They are very poor peasants, you see. The boy has probably made the skates himself."
Carl was somewhat abashed.
"Patient they may be, but as for skating, they start off pretty well only to finish with a jerk. They could move well to your new staccato piece I think."
Hilda laughed pleasantly and left him. After joining a small detachment of the racers, and sailing past every one of them, she halted beside Gretel who, with eager eyes, had been watching the sport.
"What is your name, little girl?"
"Gretel, my lady," answered the child, somewhat awed by Hilda's rank, though they were nearly of the same age, "and my brother is called Hans."
