“Hurry, Grandpa!” urged Sunny Boy.  “Hurry!  Maybe there won’t be room for me!”

Grandpa Horton laughed and said he thought there would be room for one small boy on the pond even if half the town did want to go skating that afternoon.

“I suppose it is because there is no school,” he said, as they turned in at the Park gates.  “I declare, Sunny Boy, if I had thought of it, I don’t know that I would have brought you today!”

For the ice-pond—­and by this time they were in sight of it—­was crowded with skaters.  Skating in holiday week was too delightful to be neglected, and it seemed as though all the school children in the city were skating or learning to skate.  There were big boys and little boys and tall girls and short girls and good skaters and poor ones.  Now and then a long line of skaters, hands joined, swept down the pond, shouting.

Sunny Boy beamed.  He was very glad that he had come and he wanted to sit down on the grass and put on his skates at once.

“I think we’ll walk around to the other end of the pond, dear,” said Grandpa Horton.  “There are not so many people there, and I’ll be able to walk out on the ice a little way with you till you learn to keep your balance.  Don’t put on your skates till we get to that white post.”

Sunny Boy took his grandfather’s hand and they tramped around the pond till they reached a place where there were fewer skaters.  A tall policeman was telling a pretty girl that she could not leave her sweater on the bank.

“It wouldn’t be there when you got back, Miss,” he said.  “The only wise thing to do is to carry all extras with you—­that is if you want ’em.”

The pretty girl skated off, carrying her sweater, and the policeman turned and saw Sunny Boy struggling to put on his skates.

“Well, I guess I know you!” said the policeman, smiling.  “You go to Miss May’s school, don’t you?”

It was the same policeman Sunny Boy had met when all the children at Miss May’s school had lost their coats before Thanksgiving (and that was exciting, you may be sure), and they were really very good friends.

“This is my Grandpa Horton,” said Sunny Boy.  “He and Grandma are visiting us.  They came before Christmas.”

Grandpa Horton and the policeman shook hands and Grandpa asked him if he thought the ice was safe.

“Oh, it’s safe enough, sir,” answered the policeman.

“Sunny Boy is so anxious to learn to skate,” explained Grandpa Horton, while Sunny Boy stood up, his new skates on his feet by this time, “that I promised him his first lesson today.”

“He’ll be all right if he stays near the edge and you keep an eye on him,” said the policeman.  “Sometimes the little fellows get knocked down, if they go out in the center alone.  If you tumble, Sunny Boy, don’t bump your nose, will you?  You might sneeze.”

Sunny Boy laughed, and, holding tight to Grandpa Horton’s hand, he slowly slid out on the ice.