1. With the Ski-jumpers

No sooner had Olaf entered the room where stood his Yule-tree than his eyes lighted on a big package standing behind the tree. “Skis,” he thought, “surely no other present could make such a huge package. But was his name on that package?”

Finally the moment came when his father called, “For Olaf,” and the big box was in Olaf’s hands. Olaf lost no time in opening the prize package. His eyes shone as he saw the new skis. At last he had a pair of skis fit for any ski-jumper!

Olaf had often watched ski-jumpers leap in the air like a bird and land safely on runners many feet away and go sliding gracefully down a steep hillside. Now he too could learn to be a ski-jumper!

Like most children of Norway and Sweden, Olaf had learned to run on skis when he was very young. By the time he had started to school, he could run very well. On that Christmas morning, Olaf’s little sister, only three years old, got a pair of skis too. Olaf gave her the first pair of skis he had used and she played in the snow on them, while Olaf tried his larger and finer pair.

Skiing is the favorite play of the boys at Olaf’s school. Near the school are skiing grounds where Olaf and his classmates play at recess time. At first, of course, those boys ran on small hills. Then they practised on longer slopes. Olaf’s father had said, “You must know how to handle your skis well before you begin ski-jumping.” Now Olaf did know how to run well on skis and he had the best kind of skis for jumping.

Olaf lives in Norway and nowhere in the world do people have better skiing grounds. The snows come in November and stay until March or April, and the mountain slopes make long skiing tracks. The weather too is good for skiing. Although the weather is cold enough to keep the snow for many months, the cold is not severe enough to keep sport lovers indoors.

Skiing is not merely a child’s sport in Norway. Olaf’s father and mother both ski. Many business men and their wives ski; farmers and their wives ski; the King and Queen ski. Norwegians and the Lapps of the far north often travel on skis. Such travel is easy. With knapsacks filled with food and strapped to their backs, travellers make long excursions in a short time. So Olaf lives in a country which might truly be called, “the home of the skis.”

The first Sunday after that Christmas when Olaf got his new skis, Olaf, his father, and his mother went to a long skiing ground about a five-mile ride from their home in Oslo. They left their home very early in the morning. They stood in line with many other men, women, and children waiting for the train. What a queer crowd it was! Sticking up over each head were the points of skis which looked like stubby trees. No wonder one passer-by said the sight was like “a forest of a thousand trees.”

Then the train came with a special car to carry the skis, and the merry crowd was off for the day. Olaf got his first lesson in ski-jumping.

But it was in February that Olaf got his greatest treat of the year. Oslo is near the bottom of the long narrow country and on the side away from the sea. The land around Oslo is hilly but the slopes are not very steep. One mountain for skiing is about an hour’s ride on an electric car from Oslo. On this mountain the youths of Norway gather in February each year to hold a skiing contest. So in February Olaf and his parents with thousands and thousands of people from all over countries of the north went to see the ski-jumping contest.

The jumpers gathered at the top of the long mountainside. Each contestant wore a number fastened across his chest telling his place in the contest. At a signal from an officer number one ran down the hill to a bank of snow called the “take-off” station. When he got to the “take-off,” he jumped into the air. Olaf watched him breathlessly. Yes, he landed on his feet. The crowd cheered heartily. An officer ran out with a measuring rod to see how far he was from the “take-off” when he landed on his feet again.

Then the other jumpers came in turn. Several failed to land on their feet. But most of them laughed with the people looking on over their failures even though they must have hated badly to lose.

The longest jump that day, and the longest that had ever been made at that time, was two hundred and thirty-five feet. That is a long jump, but, no doubt, some of the schoolboys who were watching the jumpers will beat that record in a few years. Some of Olaf’s playmates were able then to jump eighty feet. They are eagerly waiting to be old enough to enter the big contest.

The boys learned much by watching expert ski-jumpers. One of their favorite jumpers is the King’s son, Prince Olaf. Prince Olaf was in the big contest several times when he was a young man. The boys often saw Prince Olaf on skis. One day the Prince stopped where Olaf and his playmates were practising and told them how to hold their feet to make a safe landing. Olaf never forgot what the Prince said. And he was glad too that his mother had named him Olaf.

A line of skaters on a waterway of Sweden was set for a race. The skaters looked more like huge white birds than the young boys they were. Each skater wore heavy skates and held tightly to a frame of a large white sail.

Away they flew over the smooth ice! The strong wind which blows over the lands carried them along swiftly. Most of the boys were skillful in guiding their course with the wind and keeping on the clear ice. But here and there a skater had trouble. One skater was tossed to the bank; another was sent sprawling on the hard ice, for the wind does not deal too gently with those who cannot follow its path.

When the race was over, the winner was hoisted in the air and cheered. The skaters went their way to try again another day.

Skaters in Denmark use sails too. The flat lands have such strong winds that sail skating is great sport for Danish children. But even in the flat lands of Denmark there are days when the sail skaters are disappointed. They gather for a race to find no wind that day; and, of course, no wind means no race.

But sail skating is only a part of the skating fun in those northern lands. Children all over Norway, Sweden, and Denmark skate during the winter months. In many places playgrounds are flooded to make safe skating grounds for the girls and boys. On the safe ice even the tiny girls and boys slide on the ice and ride on the chair-like sleds which are pushed along by the larger girls and boys.

The children of those northern lands learn early that outdoor sports help to build strong and healthy bodies.