had given him, were all spread out on the window seat in his playroom.
The two presents that Sunny Boy liked most were a little pocket
searchlight and his ice-skates. The skates were double-runner ones,
for Sunny Boy did not yet know how to skate.

"I'm going to learn this winter," he told Nelson. "Grandpa is going to
take me to Wilkins Park this afternoon as soon as Daddy and Mother come
home from taking a walk."

"I can skate a little," said Nelson. "But my mother won't let me go to
the Park alone. Lots of the boys go, but she never lets me. I wish we
had a little private pond. Maybe we could make one in the yard, Sunny."

"Maybe," assented Sunny Boy, but he was thinking about going to the
Park with Grandpa Horton and trying his new skates, and not about
making a "private" skating pond in the back yard. "There! I heard the
front door shut. I hope Daddy's come."

Sunny Boy and Nelson ran downstairs to find Daddy and Mother Horton in
the hall, taking off their coats.

"Nelson, your mother wants you to come home," said Mr. Horton. "We saw
her in the window as we passed your house. She's waiting for you.
Your Aunt Caroline has come."

"Take a popcorn ball, Nelson," said Sunny Boy's mother, as Nelson began
to put on his coat and hat. "And here is one for Ruth." Ruth was
Nelson's little sister.

Nelson said good-bye to Sunny Boy and ran down the steps of the Horton