The early dusk of a December day was fast changing into darkness as three of the young people with whose adventures this story is concerned trudged briskly homeward.
The day was a bright one, and Aleck, the oldest, who was a skilled workman in the brass foundry, although scarcely eighteen years of age, had given himself a half-holiday in order to take Kate and The Youngster on a long skating expedition down to the lighthouse. Kate was his sister, two years younger than he, and The Youngster was a brother whose twelfth birthday this was.
The little fellow never had had so much fun in one afternoon, he thought, and maintained stoutly that he scarcely felt tired at all. The ice had been in splendid condition, the day calm, but cloudy, so that their eyes had not ached, and they had been able to go far out upon the solidly frozen surface of the lake.
‘How far do you think we have skated to-day, Aleck?’ asked The Youngster.
‘It’s four miles from the lower bridge to the lighthouse, ‘ spoke up Kate, before Aleck could reply, ‘and four back. That makes eight miles, to begin with.’
‘Yes, ‘ said Aleck, ‘and on top of that you must put—let me see—I should think, counting all our twists and turns, fully ten miles more. We were almost abreast of Stony Point when we were farthest out, and they say that’s five miles long.’
‘Altogether, then, we skated about eighteen miles.’
‘Right, my boy; your arithmetic is your strong point.’
‘Well, I should say his feet were his strong point to-day, ‘ Kate exclaimed, in admiration of her brother’s hardihood.
‘It wasn’t a bad day’s work for a girl I know of, either, ‘ remarked Aleck, as he took the key from his pocket and opened the door of their house, which was soon bright with lamplight and a crackling fire of oak and hickory.
The house these three dwelt in was a small cottage in an obscure street of the village, but it was warm and tight. Kate was housekeeper, and The Youngster—whose real name was James, contracted first into Jim, and then into Jimkin—was man-of-all-work, and maid-of-all-work too, sometimes, when Kate needed his help..
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Ernest Ingersoll (March 13, 1852 November 13, 1946) was an American naturalist, writer and explorer. A native of Monroe, Michigan, Ingersoll studied for a time at Oberlin College and afterward at Harvard University, where he was a pupil of Louis Agassiz. Agassiz died in 1873, and Ingersoll made his journalistic debut with an article for the New York Tribune in January 1874 on Agassiz’ work, for which he received $40 and the request for more scientific articles. In 1874, he went West as zoologist in the Hayden survey of 1874. In 1875, Ingersoll published a scientific paper describing what he had collected, mostly mollusks. On the expedition he made friends with photographer William Henry Jackson. They were the first scientists to investigate and describe the Mesa Verde cliff dwellings. Ingersoll sent dispatches to the Tribune, and the result was an offer to join its staff that year, which he accepted. While working as a reporter, he also wrote articles for an antecedent of Field and Stream and other magazines.
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