His head
is strong enough; nature has given him a fair share of brains, but,
unless I am greatly mistaken, there is a very grievous deficiency in his
allowance of heart.

"I don't believe the boy ever spoke spontaneously from the time he
learned to talk, but that every word he says is weighed before it passes
through his lips, and its effect calculated; whereas Frank never thinks
at all, but just blurts out the words which come to hand. It is curious
how much more Alice takes to him than to Fred, for he bullies her and
orders her about as if she were one of his fags, while Fred is as
courteous and polite to her as if she were a young Countess. I suppose
it is instinct, for children's opinions about people are seldom far
wrong. I thought when I brought Alice here that she would help me to
settle the problem."

Frank and Evan Holl woke at about the same time, after sleeping for some
hours; their clothes had been dried for them, and they at once began to
dress.

"How do you feel now, young un?" was Frank's first inquiry as they sat
up in their beds.

"I dunno how I feels," Evan replied. "I hardly knows where I am, or how
I got here, though I do seem to remember something about this 'ere place
too. Oh yes!" he exclaimed suddenly, "I was trying to fetch out poor
little Flossy, and the ice would not break, and I got colder and colder,
and then I don't seem to remember any more except somehow that I was
here with people standing round me, and I swallowed something hot and
went off to sleep. Ah yes! you were the gentleman as said you would come
in after me if I sang out."

"And I did come in," Frank said smilingly, "and only just in time I was,
for you did not sing out, but went right down without a word. It was
lucky you did not get under the ice."

"And Flossy," the boy said suddenly, "did she go down too?"

"No," Frank answered, "I went in again and got her out, after I had
brought you back to shore."

"Well, you are a brick!" the boy said, "a regular downright un, and no
mistake. I wonder how Harry got back; it would be a job for him to wheel
hisself all the way back to Westminster."

"Oh, I expect he got some one to help him," Frank said; "and the little
girl would be able to help shove him along."

"Yes, she would," Evan replied, "she can shove him by herself along a
pavement, and I expect that he and she atween them would be able to get
along. Lor! how them things of yours have shrunk, to be sure."

"They