That
makes a difference."
"It's very nice to be good when people notice it, isn't it?" said
Kat.
"Yah," said Kit. "I'm going to be good now right along, all the
time; for very soon St. Nicholas will come, and he leaves only a
rod in the shoes of bad children. And if you've been bad, you
have to tell him about it."
"Oh! Oh!" said Kat. "I'm going to be good all the time too. I'm
going to be good until after the feast of St. Nicholas, anyway."
Not many days after Kit and Kat got their skates, there came a
cold, cold wind. It blew over the fields and over the canals all
day and all night long; and in the morning, when the Twins looked
out, the canal was one shining roadway of ice.
Father Vedder came in from the stable with a great pail full of
milk.
"Winter is here now, for good and all," he said, as he set the
pail down. "The canals are frozen over, and soon it will be the
day for the feast of St. Nicholas."
Kit and Kat ran to him and said, both together,
"Dear Father Vedder, will you please teach us to skate before
St. Nicholas Day?"
"I'll see if the ice is strong enough to bear," said Father
Vedder; and he went right down to the canal to see, that very
minute. When he came in, he said,
"Yes, the ice is strong; and we will go out as soon as you are
ready, and try your skates."
Vrouw Vedder said, "I should like to go too"; and Father Vedder
said to Kit and Kat,
"Your mother used to be the finest skater in the whole village
when she was a young girl.
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