ew Year's vacation drew near. Unlike summer vacation, the children didn't gather at school at all but spent the whole time with their families.

"I'm going to spend New Year's with my grandfather in Kyushu," Migita kept telling everyone, while Tai-chan, who liked doing science experiments, said, "I'm going with my older brother to visit a physics laboratory." He was looking forward to it.

“Well, I’ll be seeing you," each said, telling one another their plans as they parted company.

Totto-chan went skiing with Daddy and Mother. Daddy's friend Hideo Saito, the cellist and conductor in the same orchestra, had a beautiful house in the Shiga Highlands. They used to stay with him there every winter, and Totto-chan had started learning how to ski from the time she was in kindergarten.

You took a horse-drawn sleigh from the station to the skiing area--a pure white snowscape, unbroken by ski lifts or anything but the stumps of trees here and there.

For people who didn't have a house like Mr. Saito's to go to, Mother said there was only one Japanese-style inn and one Western-style hotel. But, interestingly lots of foreigners went there.

For Totto-chan, this year was different from the year before. She was now a first grade pupil at elementary school, and also she knew one bit of English. Daddy had taught her how to say, "Thank you."

Foreigners who passed Totto-chan standing on the snow in her skis always used to say something. It was probably, "Isn't she sweet," or something like that, but Tottochan didn't understand. And until this year she hadn't been able to reply, but from now on She tried bobbing her head and saying, "Thank you."

That made the foreigners smile even more and say something to each other. Sometimes a lady would bend down and put her cheek against Totto-chan's cheek, or a gentleman would hug her. Totto-chan thought it was great fun to be able to make such good friends with people just by saying, "Thank you."

One day a nice young man came over to Totto-chan and gestured as much as to say, “Would you like a ride on the front of my skis?" Daddy told her she could.

"Thank you," replied Totto-chan, and the man had her sit down by his feet on his skis with her knees drawn up. Then, keeping both his skis together, he skied with Tottochan down the gentlest and longest slope at Shiga Highlands. They went like the wind, and as the air rushed past her ears it made a whistling sound. Totto-chan hugged her knees tightly taking care not to fall forward. It was a bit scary, but tremendous fun. When they came to a halt, the people who were watching clapped. Getting up from the man's skis, Totto-chan bowed her head slightly to the onlookers, and said, "Thank you." They clapped all the more.

Much later on she learned that the man's name was Schneider, and that he was a world-famous skier, who always used a pair of silver ski poles. But that day, what she liked about him was that after they had skied down the slope, and everybody had clapped, he crouched down beside her and, taking her hand, he looked at her as if she was somebody important and said, "Thank you." He didn't treat her like a child, but like a real grown-up lady. When he bent down, Totto-chan knew in her heart, instinctively, that he was a gentleman. And beyond him, the snow-white landscape seemed to go on forever.