We and the World, Part I

who sent th

sing through

ds, the lakes

*

the diver,

g of Hi

rk outside, and thought, "There goes our skating." Towards morning, however, I woke again, and had to pull the quilt back into its place, and when I started after breakfa

ith, I went down to the farm after breakfast, to see what Charlie and the Woods were going to do. Charlie was not well, but Mr. Wo

it thawed all yesterday; and if the wheel was freed and has been turning, it

," as Americans say, smooth and clear as a newly-washed window-pane. I did not go on it, but

ith their heels, and as we stood there the numbers increased, and most of them went on withou

al," said Mr. Wood to a

break when it bends," was th

llage had come up, and a group, includin

d I noticed then that the ice seemed to look wetter, like ne

is not safe," said

s in his pockets and his back turned to us, stepped down and gave two or three

eight e

t for a crowd, I'm afraid. Was the wat

ght, but it's froz aga

weak place where the stream is has got since yesterday. However," he added, good-humo

k to us, "I reckon we've slid on this dam a ma

rnoon goes on, call off those lads at the other end in good time. And if you could warn them not t

" said John Binder, candidly. "Th

the heavy man, and he jumped on to the ic

rning to me with a half-vexed laugh, "I don't suppose I should discredit myself to no purpose by

asked reluctantly; for I wan

ave a wish that you should not go on till I co

mise,"

strode off at a pace that promised soon to bring him back, I put my hands into my pockets and joined the groups of watchers on the bank. I suppose if I had thought abou

katers. But as I looked closer I saw that the wet on the top was beginning to have a curdled look, and that the glassiness of the mill-dam was much di

ween jeering and applause, his neighbours followed him up and down the dam. As I might not go on, I wandered up and down the bank too, and occasionally joined in a murmured cheer when he deftly evaded some intentional blunderer, or cut a figure at the request of his partic

back, only one field off, and beckoned to him to be quick, because the lad was beginning to cut a double three backwards, and I wanted the school-master to see it. Secondly, that the sight of him seemed suddenly to bring to my mind that we were all on the far side of the dam, the side he thought dangerous. And thirdly, that, quickly as my

headlong, his head struck, and where it struck it went through. It looked so horrible that it was a reli

pled over it out of that awful hole. But great as was the shock, it was small to the storm of shame and agony that came over me when I realized that every comrade who had been aroun

r be drowned in the hole with him, and I began to scramble in a foolish way down the bank,

elf over the hedge by the alder thicket (he was rather good at hig

s the

bbed, "He was cutting a double t

ed my arms and t

with him?" he said.

nt; and I shall never forget the haggard faces that turned b

several men hastened to reply, but most of them only enforced

d it, and then he seized the man next to him (wit

er, and yo

ck to us. He was very big and very heavy, but he reeled w

d the school-master. "Won't one of you ventu

nd he gave a sob that made me begin to cry again, and several other peop

out rope-as fast as you can, and send somebody for the doctor and a bottl

e bank and walked on to the ice; but after a time h

do Mr. Wood's bidding, we were all watching and all huddled closer to the edge than ever. The school-mas

up to now

tter nor thee." She had pushed to the front, and was crouched upon the edge, and seemed very much excited. "God bless him

fairness in the roughest of us), or perhaps the crowd, being chiefly men knew fro

explained in pacific tones. "I reckon he thinks it'll be

mason, and looked up at him

he said. "D'ye thin

a man that knows what he's doi

s in-and there goes his knee. Maester! maester!" he shouted, "come off!

od 'un-over good to be drownded, if-if it's of no use." And she sat down on the bank, an

od had got back to the bank. Several hands were held out

o the alder thicket. "I want two poles," he said, "sixteen fe

right

ook one of his cold wet hands in both mine, an

long ago," I added, rep

dy for travelling yet. You must learn not to lose your head and your heart and your wits and your sense of ti

, s

aid the school-m

ds us, so willing had been the owners of the jack-knives. The th

ore he turned. The school-master chose a second pole, and then pushed both before him right out on to the ice, in such a

nd no more blubbering. There's always p

en yards of the hole he stopped. He evidently dared not go on; and the same thought seized all of us-"Can he get back?" Spreading his legs and arms he now lay flat upon the poles, peering towards the

on the gilt-edged Church service my mother gave her) that the girl was so violent that it took fourteen men to hold her; but Martha wasn't there, and I only saw two, one at each arm,

ying, "I don't know if there's aught we can do, but I can't go home myself and l

it broke into cries of "See thee!-It is-it's t' maester! and he has-no!-yea!-he ha

ed by the drowning man, which pulled him suddenly down. The lad had risen once, it seems, though we had not seen him, and had got a breath of air at the hole, but the edge broke in his numbed finge

under water, and somebody tries to save you, when he grips you, don't seize him, if you can muster self-control to avoid

ou?" I

and dived with him-the only real risk I ra

old quarr

still we naturally rose, and I turned on my back and got him by the head. I looked about

his burden afloat whilst he broke a swimming path for himself with the other, our admiration of his cleverness gave place to the blessed thought that it might now be possible to help him. The sight of the poles seemed suddenly to suggest it, and in a moment every spare pol

he bits of ice closed over him, not a soul of those who followed him would-nay, could-have turned back. Heroism, like cow

teaching, that those on the bank paid it out at once to those in the water till it reached the leader, without waiting to ask why

nd after a struggle Mr. Wood grasped it. I fancy he fastened it round the lad's body; and got his own hands freer to break the ice before them. Then the heavy man turned, and the long end of the line, passing from hand to hand in th

se in terror and pursued their seaward way; so wild and so prolonged were the echoes of

rue, for two sensible words would have stuck in my own throa