e, and he called out: "It's all right, by Jove! The
water isn't much above my knees." And even as he spoke Mabel saw Kittie
rise in the water and sort of hurl herself at him and pull him down into
the water, head and all. When they came up they were both half
strangled, and Mabel was terribly frightened; for she thought George was
mistaken about the depth, and they would both drown before her eyes; and
then she would see that picture all her life, as they do in stories, and
her hair would turn gray. She began to run up and down on the ice and
scream; but even as she did so she heard these extraordinary words come
from between Kittie James's chattering teeth:

"_Now you are good and wet_!"

George did not say a word. He confessed to Mabel afterwards that he
thought poor Kittie had lost her mind through fear. But he tried the ice
till he found a place that would hold him, and he got out and pulled
Kittie out. As soon as Kittie was out she opened her mouth and uttered
more remarkable words.

"Now," she said, "I'll skate till we get near the club-house. Then you
must pick me up and carry me, and I'll shut my eyes and let my head hang
down. And Mabel must cry--good and hard. Then you must send for
Josephine and let her see how you've saved the life of her precious
little sister."

Mabel said she was sure that Kittie was crazy, and next she thought
George was crazy, too. For he bent and stared hard into Kittie's eyes
for a minute, and then he began to laugh, and he laughed till he cried.
He tried to speak, but he couldn't at first; and when he did the words
came out between his shouts of boyish glee.

"Do you mean to say, you young monkey," he said, "that this is a put-up
job?"

Kittie nodded as solemnly as a fair young girl can nod when her clothes
are dripping and her nose is blue with cold. When she did that, George
roared again; then, as if he had remembered something, he caught her
hands and began to skate very fast toward the club-house. He was a
thoughtful young man, you see, and he wanted her to get warm. Perhaps he
wanted to get warm, too. Anyhow, they started off, and as they went,
Kittie opened still further the closed flower of her girlish heart. I
heard that expression once, and I've always wanted to get it into one of
my stories. I think this is a good place.

She told George she knew the hole in the ice, and that it wasn't deep;
and she said she had done it all to make Josephine admire him and marry
hi