Chapter 24 Chapter 23 Ice Skating

That winter the freeze began at the end of December and lasted, except for a slightly warmer week in January, until the beginning of March.It was the worst Great Freeze in history.Eventually, even flowing water freezes.The upstream hydraulic mill was frozen and stopped turning. At that time, there were often large flat-bottomed boats going back and forth between Kings Lynn and upstream Castleford. Later, this route was also blocked by freezing. Freeze covers the whole of the UK.Whole oxen are roasted on ice in some waters, as if to prove how hard the ice is, and that is the best use for ice.At Chewell, Oxford, a great six-horse carriage drove through the middle of a frozen river, to the special relief of all on board.But only the people of Castleford and the Marshes know the truest and most exciting use of ice: they skate.

When Tom and Hatty came to the river, people had been skating on the ice for weeks.They both felt that there must be more people skating on the river than there were people going to the market in the town. Not everyone skates well and fast, and there are some beginners.A policeman walks with dignity and majesty, like a swan in a blue uniform.There is also a new way of skating-figure skating: Hattie pointed and told Tom that in one place, there was an orange in the middle of the ice, and four dignified gentlemen wearing tall black top hats Sliding beautiful and harmonious patterns around the oranges, they are close to the oranges, far away from them, and sometimes circle around the oranges.Suddenly, a little urchin in the town, with a set of rusty swamp ice skates strapped loosely to his boots, rushed in, grabbed the orange, bit it in his mouth, and disappeared as soon as he turned around.The dense crowd of skaters swayed back and forth, blocking his back, and the few figure skating gentlemen stopped, feeling extremely annoyed.

Hatty laughed as much as Tom did at the brazen theft.But all the while she was watching her surroundings warily and a little uneasily.Among all these townspeople and country folks, someone might recognize her and gossip about how she was here alone.Fortunately, Hattie was lucky, and no one seemed to notice her at all. The skates were strapped on, and Hattie and Tom were ready to hit the ice: two skaters wearing the same set of skates and skates seemed to Tom the queerest and most natural thing in the world.He suddenly had a new skill and ability, and it seemed that the set of skates and blades was better at it than the skater himself: he could skate as well as Hattie, because he was wearing Hattie's skates.The only difference between the two of them is that his skates left no marks or scratches when they slid across the ice.

They did not slide hand in hand, as many skaters do, for fear that others would notice the oddity.But when they left the gregarious crowd that gathered below the town, they skated side by side, keeping the same rhythm, the same pace.There was no wind that afternoon, and they moved faster and faster through the still air. Hatty had already pinned the skirt above her ankles to make it easier to move.Now she doesn't use the muff, so she can move her arms more freely to the rhythm of skating.They were skating so fast that the muff flew behind her with the straps attached, and finally, with one hard slide, the straps snapped and the round, fluffy muff flew off and landed in an ice hockey game. In the middle of the field, it also became part of the game, and then disappeared.Hattie watched it disappear without stopping or slowing down, she just laughed, as if she didn't care about muffs any more, or decency, or her aunt.They continued to slide forward.

They had left the Castleford waters entirely, and a sluice appeared ahead, and the sluice was frozen to death, and the barrage was frozen, and they had to limp ashore, round the sluice, and back on the ice again.They slipped under a bridge, where the ice was solid despite the bridge.Along the way, all the ferry crossings were frozen, and the ferrymen stood sadly beside their ice-bound boats. Hatty and Tom continued to slide forward.Most of the skaters they encounter these days are men.Tom saw that even if there were a few girls now and then, they were always accompanied.The two of them skated to a lonely riverside tavern. The sign on it said: "Five miles to any place-don't worry." From time to time they could see some skaters resting on the bank, all in the swamp. The people who work on the farms in the area.They shouted cheerfully to Hattie and asked if she would like to let one of them skate with her.They kept yelling, until at last Hattie answered aloud that she was with someone, but they couldn't see her.Those skaters thought it was a very humorous joke, and they didn't take it seriously, but laughed out loud.Hatty laughed too, and even Tom laughed, but no one heard him except Hatty.

They continued to slide forward, the pale and dazzling sun began to sink slowly to the west, and the black shadow cast by Hattie was on their right, skimming across the glittering ice.Sometimes they slide on the river, sometimes on the ice washed out by the flood.Only the willows on the bank watched them, and only the ice rustled under their feet. They had ceased talking and thinking--their legs, arms, and bodies were swinging from side to side like pendulums, with precise, regular, never-ending sway--and after a long while Hatty suddenly cried out: "Look!" , Tom - the bell tower of Ely Cathedral!"

Yet, seen from the river, Erie's clock tower seems to be playing hide and seek with tourists.Hatty and Tom went on skating and skating for a long time, and the clock tower seemed not to bring them a little nearer, but to play a mysterious trick, following the winding and winding direction of the river, suddenly He ran to the left, then to the right, and then to the front again.At last they came nearer and nearer, while the church tower loomed behind many roofs.Now they were at the point where the river turned into the little town of Erie. They landed.Hattie took off her skates and walked on her skates—she had no other shoes.Tom wore his skates and skates around his neck and walked in socks.

They walked through the town towards the cathedral, and then entered the cathedral's magnificent and wide west door.The winter twilight grew thicker and began to cast a shadow over the empty church interior.They walked through the nave in the direction of the octagon.It seemed to Tom that the roof of the cathedral was like a smaller sky, and though they kept walking forward, looking up, they hardly moved compared with the majestic expanse of the roof.Hatty walked dazzled. "Oh, I didn't expect such a big--such a beautiful place!" she said. They passed a sexton, and Tom whispered to Hatty, "Ask him how to get to the belfry." Hatty turned and asked.The sexton said the young lady was waiting by the font at the top of the west wing and could go up in ten minutes.That was the last ascent of the day.The fare is sixpence.

During the period before going upstairs, they just walked around in the cathedral.Out of Notre Dame, Tom stopped to read a plaque commemorating a certain Mr. Robinson, an MP for the City of London, who, on October 15, 1812, when he was seventy-two years old, used his time In exchange for eternity.In a way, Tom thought, he was trying to imitate Mr. Robinson.He wanted to trade the ordinary time, which never stopped approaching Saturday, for an endless time, for eternity in the garden. "Trading time for eternity," Tom said aloud again, noticing that the walls of the cathedral did not return an echo.The silence was eerie.

Hatty turned back to see what Tom was dawdling about.She also saw the commemorative text on the plaque over Tom's shoulder, and was also attracted by the exquisite and unique words. "Trading time for eternity," she read aloud, "time... eternity..." There was a faint echo of Hatty's words, and Hatty's voice and its echo filled the silence after Tom's words, and made him feel something in his heart. some comfort.He turned impulsively to Hattie: he wanted to confide in her the secret of his heart—he wanted to tell her all about his plans.He said it now. But Hattie was looking towards the font, where there was already a line of people waiting, and she hurried over to stand with them.Tom didn't want to detain her, because he wanted to go up to the tower himself.He followed Hattie.It was all right, he would talk to her later, not later than when they were on the long journey back to Castleford.He had plenty of time then.