think so?'

CHAPTER XXXVII.

A CUT, AND ITS CONSEQUENCES.

What could be the matter? Ponto, at all events, seemed to think it of
much importance, for he never ceased to pull their skirts and whine
an entreaty, and go through the pantomime of running off in a great
hurry--never farther than the threshold--until he saw the girls put on
their cloaks and hoods. Gravely he sat on his tail, looking at them with
patient eyes, and, when the door was opened, sprang off madly towards
the pond.

'Could Reginald have sent him for anything? Something might have
happened to Reginald. Ponto never came home in that way before. Could a
tree have fallen on Reginald?' and Jay's small hand shivered in Linda's
at the thought. They hurried after the dog, over the spotless surface of
snow, into the charred forest, where now every trunk and bough of ebony
seemed set in silver. Thither Reginald had gone to chop at noon, in a
little fit of industry. They were guided to the spot by the sad whinings
of faithful Ponto, who could not comprehend why his master was lying on
the ground, half against a tree, and what meant that large crimson
stain deepening in the pure snow.

A desperate axe-cut in his foot--this was the matter. Linda almost
turned sick at the sight; but Jay, compressing her white lips very
firmly, to shut in a scream, kneeled down by her brother.

He had succeeded, with infinite effort, in drawing off his long leather
boot, through which the axe had penetrated, and had been trying to bind
his neckcloth tightly above the ankle. Jay helped him with all her
little strength.

'Give me a stick,' said he hoarsely--'a strong stick;' Linda flew to
find one. 'Something to make a tourniquet;' and, not readily seeing any
wood to answer the want, she used his axe, stained as it was, to chop
a branch from the single tree he had felled. She had never tried her
strength of arm in this way before; but now the axe felt quite light,
from her excitement. Before the stick could be ready, in her unpractised
fingers, Jay cried out, 'Oh, Linda, he is dying! he has fainted!'

Still, she had common sense to know that the first necessity was to
stop the bleeding; so, quieting the little sister by a word or two, she
inserted the stick in the bandage above the ankle, and turned it more
than once, so as to tighten the ligament materially. Looking at the
pallid features, another thought struck her.

'Let us heap up snow round the wounded foot and