r of the excited pair.

"You--you tell him, Marty!" said Janice, turning toward the door. "I
must put these beautiful flowers in water. Come in, Mr. Haley, and get
warm."

But the teacher remained out there on the wind-swept porch while he
listened to what Marty had to tell. The girl's trouble struck home to
the generous-hearted young man. He was moved deeply for
her--especially upon a day like this when, in the nature of things, all
persons should be joyous and glad.

"I will take you to the Landing, if the breeze holds fair," he declared
and he pooh-poohed Mrs. Day's fears that there was any danger in
sailing the ice boat. He had come up from the Landing himself the
night before in an hour and a half.

"What a dreadful, dreadful way to spend Christmas Day!" moaned Aunt
'Mira, as she helped Janice to dress. "Something's likely to happen to
that ice boat. I've seen 'em racing on the lake. Them folks jest take
their lives in their han's--that's right!"

"I'll make the boys take care," Janice promised.

Aunt 'Mira saw them go with fear and trembling, and immediately
ensconced herself in the window of Janice's room, with a shawl around
her shoulders, to watch the flight of the ice boat after it got under
way down at the dock.

Janice, and the teacher and Marty had fairly to wade to the shore of
the lake. The drifts were very deep on land; but, as Marty said, the
wind had swept the ice almost bare. Here and there a ridge of snow had
formed upon the glistening surface; but Mr. Haley made light of these
obstructions.

"The _Fly-by-Night_ will just go humming through those, Miss Janice.
Don't you fear," he said.

There were few people abroad in High Street, for it was not yet
mid-forenoon. Most who were out were busily engaged shoveling paths.
The three young folks got down to the dock, and Haley and Marty turned
up the heavy body of the ice boat and swept the snow off.

There was a good deal of a drift of snow right along the edge of the
lake; but they pushed the ice boat out beyond this windrow, with
Janice's help, and then stepped the mast and bent on the heavy sail.
It was a cross-T boat, with a short nose and a single sail. The
steersman had a box in the rear and in this there was room for Janice
to ride, too. The sheet-tender likewise ballasted the boat by lying
out on one or the other end of the crosspiece.

There was a keen wind, not exactly fair for the trip down the lake; yet
their sheet f