Ben said, "he went tearing" down the hill toward the river, but that he
feared there might be before all was done, unless there was some way of
preventing it.

"Where are them boys?" he heard one mother say to another, as he passed
with his empty pitcher in his hand, and the answer was--

"They've gone down to the river, I expect. But I don't suppose there's
any danger--not to Gershom boys, who swim there every summer day of
their lives."

But there were many boys and girls also on the grounds who did not
belong to Gershom, and to some of them a river big enough for a boat to
sail on, would have a charm which must certainly draw them to its banks,
and it would have been a good plan to appoint a committee to see to
such, Davie thought.

"I'll just have a look down there," he said to himself, and as soon as
he was over the fence and out of sight, he ran rapidly toward the river.
There were all sorts of children there, some of whom had wandered down
to the mill-pond. There were two boats on the river, but there were
grown people as well as children in them, and there were grown people
walking on the bank who might justly be considered responsible for the
safety of those who could not take care of themselves, and Davie was
about to turn up the hill again, when a little fellow hailed him.

"I say, Davie, what do you suppose Dannie Green and Frankie Holt and two
more boys are doing? They have taken your raft and are going to have a
sail on the Black Pool--so they said."

"They could never do it," said Davie, with a sudden fear rising.

There was no turning up the hill after that. He ran across the two
fields to the point where the raft had been left. It was gone sure
enough, and he hastened on, stumbling over the stones and timber which
Jacob Holt had last winter accumulated on the Varney place. Then he
went through the strip of woods, and round the rocky point beyond,
thinking all the time that such little fellows never could have pushed
the raft so far up the stream, and that it was foolish for him to run.

But he was not a minute too soon. He could never tell afterward,
whether he saw the raft, or heard the frightened cry first, but he knew
that a boy had overbalanced and fallen into the water while trying to
reach bottom with his pole in the deeper waters of the pool; and the
next moment he had thrown off boots and coat, and was striking out
toward the spot where he had disappeared. The boy would rise in