ch thing as soda.

"But as for Patience," said she, "I really don't see, Moses, how I can
have her stay at home _this_ week. Rachel is weaving, Dorcas is
spinning, and the baby is cutting a tooth. Just now my hands are more
than full, my son."

Patty was delighted to hear that. It never once occurred to her to feel
ashamed of being such a trial to everybody. Dorcas tied her hood, pinned
her yellow blanket over her little shoulders, kissed her good by, and
off she trotted between Mary and Moses, full of triumph and
self-importance.

There was only a half-day's school on Saturday, and as the children were
going home that noon, George said,--

"I call this rather slow getting ahead. Patty creeps like a snail."

"Because her feet are so small," said kind-hearted Mary.

"They are twice as big as common with mud, I am sure," returned George;
whereupon Silas laughed; for whatever either of the twins said, the
other twin thought it very bright indeed.

"There, don't plague her, Georgie," said Mary, "Moses and I have got as
much as _we_ can do to get her home. I tell you my arms ache pulling!"

As she spoke a frightful noise was heard,--not thunder, it was too
prolonged for that; it was a deep, sullen roar, heard above the wail of
the wind like the boom of Niagara Falls. Very soon the children saw for
themselves what it meant. _The ice was going out!_

There was always more or less excitement to these little folks,--and,
indeed, to the grown folks too,--in the going out of the ice, for it
usually went at a time when you were least expecting it.

This was a glorious sight! The ice was very thick and strong, and the
freshet was hurling it down stream with great force. The blocks were
white with a crust of snow on top, but they were as blue at heart as a
bed of violets, and tumbled and crowded one another like an immense
company of living things. The tide was sending them in between great
heaps of logs, and the logs were trying to crush them to pieces, while
they themselves rushed headlong at terrible speed. The sun came out of a
cloud, and shone on the ice and logs in their mad dance. Then the white
blocks quivered and sparkled like diamonds, and the twins cried out
together, "How splendid!"

"Pretty! pretty!" chimed in little Patty, falling face downwards into a
mud puddle.

"Well, that's pretty works," said Moses, picking her up, and partially
cleansing her with his gingham pocket-handkerchief.

"Hallo, there!" s