cast a despairing look towards the shore. Then gradually his head
disappeared under the water; but Frank was already half-way towards him.
A few strides had taken him through the shallow water, and he swam with
vigorous strokes through the floating fragments to the end of the line
of broken water; then he too disappeared for a moment. A dead silence
reigned through the crowd; but when two heads appeared above the water
together, a ringing cheer broke out. Carrying his senseless companion,
Frank swam back to shore.

"Take off his wet clothes," he said, as he handed his burden to some of
the men. "Wrap him up in my coat and his own, and then run with him up
to the Humane Society's House, they will bring him round in no time; it
is cold, not drowning."

Then he looked again across the water. The little dog was swimming
feebly now, its nose scarcely above the surface. It had given a
plaintive cry of despair as it saw those who had approached so near turn
back, for there were but some five yards between the spot where the
boy's strength had failed and the circle which it had broken in its
efforts to climb out.

"I can't be colder than I am," Frank said to himself, "so here goes."

Accordingly he again dashed into the water and swam to the end of the
narrow passage; a few vigorous strokes broke the intervening barrier of
ice. He seized the little dog, put it on the ice, and with a push sent
it sliding towards the shore, and then turned and swam back again.

It was only just where the dog had fallen in that the ice was too weak
to bear its weight, and, after lying for two or three minutes utterly
exhausted, it scrambled to its feet and made its way to the bank, where
it was soon wrapped in the apron of its delighted mistress.

Frank, on reaching the shore, was scarcely able to stand, so benumbed
were his legs by the cold. His cousins had made their way through the
crowd to the spot.

"O Frank," Alice exclaimed, "what a mad thing for you to do. Oh! I am so
pleased you did it--but oh, you do look cold! What will you do?"

"I am all right, Alice," Frank said, as cheerfully as his chattering
teeth would allow him to speak. "You go home with Fred; I shall get a
hot bath and have my clothes dried at the receiving-house, and shall be
as right as a trivet in half an hour. There, good-bye!"

Frank walked stiffly at first, but was presently able to break into a
run, which he kept up until he reached the establishment of the Ro