e ice.

Instinctively we all sheered off toward the west shore at first. Then
came the impulse to save him. A peeled hemlock log lay stranded on the
shore upon rocks, with about four feet of its length frozen in the ice.
I remember rushing to this, to get it up and slide it out to him.
Finding I could not wrench it loose with my hands, I kicked it with
first one foot and then the other, and broke both my skates; but the ice
held it like a vise. Then I started on my broken skates to find a pole;
two or three of the other boys were also running for poles, shouting
excitedly.

All the while Alfred was calling despairingly to us; every time the ice
broke, he would nearly disappear under the water, which was deadly cold.

Addison who had first pulled off his skates, then thought of green alder
poles. Running to the nearest clump, he bent down and hurriedly cut off
two, each as large as a pump-brake. Before I was done kicking the peeled
hemlock log, or Halse was back from his pole hunt, Addison had shoved
one of the long alders out to Alf, who managed to clutch hold of it.

Addison had hold of the butt end, and Willis Murch, nearer the shore,
had reached out the top of the second alder to Addison. The ice yielded
somewhat and the water came up; but they all held fast. By this time the
rest of us had cut more alders, one of which was thrust out to Willis;
and then by main strength we hauled Alfred out and back where the ice
was firmer.

It is doubtful whether we should have got him out of the lake but for
this expedient; for the water was so cold and the wind so bitterly
sharp, that he could not long have supported himself by those bending
ice edges. His teeth chattered noisily when at length we hauled him
ashore; Addison's, too! Both were wet through. We started and ran as
hard as we could towards home. Two of us had to drag Alf at the start;
but he ran better after the first hundred yards; and we were all very
warm by the time we got him home.

It is often difficult to determine why the ice on some portions of a
pond should be thin and treacherous, as in the above instance, while on
other portions it is quite safe. Indeed, there is no way of determining
except by cautious inspection.

I must do Alfred the justice to record that he came around quite
handsomely to thank Addison, and then asked his pardon for the hard
words that he had used at Fair time.

The morning following is marked forever in my memory by an unexp