by a perfect evening and perfect ice. The latter had been shaved and
smoothed over every gnarly place. There was not a single crack in which a
skate could be caught to throw the wearer. The arena roped off from the
spectators was as smooth as a ballroom floor.

It was about two acres in extent. Around three sides of the roped-off space
there was a roped-off alley with boards laid upon the ice upon which the
spectators could stand. Uprights held the strings of colored lights which
were supplied with electricity from the city lighting company; for this was
not the first exhibition of the kind that had been staged upon Lake Luna.

Around the alley allotted to the audience, each member of which had to pay
a half dollar for a ticket, was a guarded space so that those who did not
pay entrance fee could not get near enough to enjoy the spectacle.

The short-distance races, following the figure skating, were all within the
oval of the principal arena. Then the ropes were taken down at one end and
the long-distance races came off, a mile track having been marked with
staffs upon the ice, staffs which now held the clusters of colored
lanterns.

For two hours the company was so well amused that few were driven away by
the cold--and it was an intensely cold night The ringing of the skates on
the almost adamantine ice revealed the fact that Jack Frost had a tight
clutch on the waters of Lake Luna.

"I wish my mother could have seen this," Janet Steele murmured to Laura
Belding. "I think it is like fairyland."

"Isn't it pretty? Now comes the torchlight procession. The boys arranged