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Page 23
"Well, my son," he said cheerily, "tired out? I saw you run. You have
a fine pair of heels. They have good speed in them."
"I wanted to catch up with someone,--an old beggar-man who lost
something in our area-way. I wanted to return it to him," explained
Lionel, breathlessly.
The stranger gazed down at him more kindly than ever. "So? But one
can't expect to catch up with folks when one gets _winded_ and has to
stop every now and then for breath. Better try my mode."
"Please, sir, what is your mode?" inquired Lionel, with his politest
manner.
"To begin with," explained his companion, "I have to accomplish the
most astonishing feats in the manner of speed. Literally I have to
travel so fast that I am in two places at once. You will the better
believe me when I tell you who I am,--Jack Frost, at your service, sir.
Now, by what means do you think I manage it ?"
"I 'm sure I don't know. I should like immensely to find out," Lionel
returned.
"How do you get to places yourself?" inquired Jack Frost. "Do you
always run?"
"Oh, no, indeed. I almost always ride on my bicycle. Then I can _go_
like anything, 'specially down _coasts_. Upgrades are kind of hard
sometimes, but not so very. Oh, I can go quick enough when I have my
bicycle."
"Now then," broke in Jack Frost, "you use a bicycle,--that is, a
machine having two wheels. Now _I_ use a something having but one
wheel; consequently it goes twice as fast,--oh! much more than twice as
fast."
"One wheel?" repeated Lionel, thoughtfully; "seems to me I never
heard of that kind of an one."
"Suppose you guess," proposed Jack Frost. "I 'll put it in the form of
a conundrum: If a thing having two wheels is called a _bi_cycle, what
would a thing having but one be called?"
"Oh, that's an old one. I 've heard that before, and the answer is, a
wheelbarrow, you know."
Jack Frost shook his head, "I see I shall have to tell you," he said.
"If a thing having two wheels is called a _bi_cycle, a thing having but
one would naturally be an _i_cicle. Of course you might have known I
should use an icicle."
"But oh, Mr. Frost," objected Lionel, "I never saw an icicle with a
wheel in my life, and I never saw one go either."
"That's because you have n't seen me on one; and even if you had seen
me on one, you wouldn't have known it,--we travel so fast. Did you
ever notice that when things are going at the very rapidest rate
possible, they seem to be standing perfectly still? That's the way
with icicles. They have tremendous speed in them. They go so fast you
can't realize it, and then when they are slowing up they don't do it
with a clumsy jerk as bicycles do; they just gradually melt out of
sight."
"Yes, I 've seen them do that. I 've seen them go that way," admitted
Lionel. "But will you take me to the beggar? I'm 'fraid I sha'n't be
able to give him his rule if I don't hurry up."
"But do you know in what direction he went?" asked Jack Frost. "If one
wants to catch up with any one, one needs to have _some_ idea of the
direction he took. It's quite a _desideratum_,--when you get home,
look that up."
Then Lionel felt deeply mortified. "What a silly I was!" he said.
"Perhaps I was going just the opposite way from the one he went. Oh,
dear! how can I ever give him back his rule? It is such a beauty. If
it had been mine, I 'd just hate to lose it."
"Let us examine it," suggested Jack Frost, "and see if there is any
sign upon it that would help to discover its owner;" and without a
moment's doubt or hesitation Lionel drew it from his pocket and held it
up for Jack Frost to see.
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