that? Some one on the river at this time! Very
imprudent! Very--' Then he broke off short, and gave me a strange look.
I sprang up and went to the window. What did I see, my dear girls? The
river was full of great cakes of ice, all pressed and jumbled together;
the current was running very swiftly; and there, in the middle of the
river, jumping from one cake to another like a chamois, or some such
wild creature, was Mildred Bond."

"Oh!" cried Rose, "how dreadful! Dear Miss Bond, what did you do?"

Hildegarde was silent. It was certainly very naughty, she thought; but
oh, what fun it must have been!

"Fortunately," said Miss Wealthy, "I became quite faint at the sight.
Fortunately, I say; for I might have screamed and startled the child,
and made her lose her footing. As it was, the minister went and called
Martha, and she, like the sensible girl she is, simply blew the
dinner-horn as loud as she possibly could. It was the middle of the
afternoon; but as she rightly conjectured, the sound, without startling
Mildred, gave her to understand that she was wanted. The minister
watched her making her way to the shore, leaping the dark spaces of
rushing water between the cakes, apparently as unconcerned as if she
were walking along the highway; and when he saw her safe on shore, he
was very glad to sit down and drink a glass of the wine that Martha had
brought to revive me. 'My dear madam,' he said,--I was lying on the sofa
in dreadful suspense, and could not trust myself to look,--'the young
lady is safe on the bank, and will be here in a moment. I fear she is
not so sedate as you fancied; and as she is too old to be spanked and
put to bed, I should recommend your sending her home by the coach
to-morrow morning. That girl, madam, needs the curb, and you have been
guiding her with the snaffle.' He was very fond of horses, good man,
and always drove a good one himself."

"And did you send her home?" asked Hildegarde, anxiously, thinking what
a dreadful thing it would be to be sent back in disgrace.

"Oh, no!" said Miss Wealthy, "I could not do that, of course. Mildred
was my god-child, and I loved her dearly. But she was not allowed to see
me for twenty-four hours, and I fancy those were very sad hours for her.
Dear Mildred! that was her last prank; for the next time she came here
she was a woman grown, and all the hoyden ways had been put off like a
garment. And now, dears," added Miss Wealthy, rising, "we must let
Marth