This skating rink had a queer effect on the town in a general way; it acted as a sort of a leveler, an equalizer of station and fashion. The well-to-do skated with the poor, the handsome with the homely, and the freckled with the fair. It was one general mix-up in which there were no favorites. The funniest part of it was to stand across the street and listen on Saturday afternoon. Above the noise of the town was this general local roar of the skates, and as if periods or punctuations, the building shook with dull
thuds. Sometimes they fell in clusters, others, one at a time; but you didn’t have to wait long to hear two or three dull sounding whacks that made the windows rattle on the upper story of the building.
I took two or three short dashes at it morning and
