ff the
rheumatism--let us see who will be the first at The Grange!" They
accordingly started, running as fast as the numbness of their feet would
allow, and soon arrived at the house; but what remarkable objects were
Tom and George, when they presented themselves before the eyes of their
astonished aunt and cousins! Their dress, soaked with water, was now
perfectly stiff, like a coat of armor, and the edges hung with icicles,
as did their hair; Cornelia, concerned as she was for her brother and
cousin, could not, when she thought of it, long afterwards, refrain from
merry peals of laughter at the ludicrous appearance they made--they
looked as if they had come from the North Pole, representatives from the
regions of eternal ice and snow. Mrs. Wyndham very soon had beds
prepared for them, where, wrapt up in blankets, and comforted by a warm
drink, which the advocates of the Maine Liquor Law would not have
altogether approved of, they speedily recovered their vital warmth, and
the elasticity of their spirits. Uncle John assured the young party, who
were full of fears for their health, that his anticipations of evil
consequences had been scattered by seeing those piled-up plates at
dinner-time return to him to be replenished: he thought that such fine
appetites were very good symptoms. They spent the day in bed, but were
so much recruited from their exhaustion by a sound sleep, that Aunt Lucy
mercifully took off her restriction, and allowed them to join the family
group at supper. Tom's hands were bound up, on account of "those
honorable scars," as Cornelia called them, and the two, the rescued and
the rescuer, were decidedly the heroes of the evening: the girls, ever
full of admiration of gallant conduct, looked upon good-natured and
pleasant Tom Green with a respect they had not felt before.

One of the games this evening was "What is my thought like?" Mary went
round the circle asking the question, and when she announced that her
thought was _President Taylor_, there was some amusement at the
incongruity of the replies. She then asked each one for a reason of the
resemblance, and an answer was to be given immediately, or a forfeit to
be paid.

"Cornelia, why was President Taylor like a _sunset_?"

"Because his career was splendid like the sun, and his loss equally
regretted."

"John, why was he like a _brick_?"

"So substantial."

"Amy, why was he like a _cat_?"

"Why--because he was so 'cute."

"Alice, why wa