Half a dozen boys

by Anna Chapin Ray

"What is it? Is he hurt? Is he killed?" exclaimed the frightened boys, crowding around their companion.

"No, I think he has only fainted," said Bess, reassuring them as best she could. She sent Ted for some water, and soon had the boy on his feet, apparently none the worse for his escapade.

"Now, boys, come home," said she, as she took off her skates, too much exhausted by her recent alarm to give the lecture the boys so richly deserved for their carelessness.

With Bert at her side, she started to walk home, closely followed by four crestfallen lads, who, though speechless, telegraphed to each other, in dumb show, behind her back, that they were going to be scolded. The culprits presented a forlorn appearance. Rob's bump was already showing various rainbow hues, while Sam's nose had no less quickly developed the size, shape, and color of a prize radish, and Phil's lip had grown decidedly puffy. As they reached the Carters' gate, Bess raised her eyes to the window where Fred, a dark little figure against the brightly lighted room, was sitting to listen for her step. Then she turned to the boys.

"Now, my boys," she said, "I wonder if you know how near you came to being drowned, or worse. It was a crazy thing to do, that ice-boat of yours, and I am thankful that you only have some swollen eyes and noses to remember it by. Don't do it again, children. You didn't think this time, I know, but you must never try it again. Will you promise?"

"It was first-rate fun," remonstrated Phil, the clearness of his speech rather impaired by his swollen lip.

"Yes, fun in the time of it; but suppose that you had gone into the water, or that Bert had been more than stunned by his fall. Such fun as that would not be worth while, I am sure. I want you to let this be your last ice-boating, until you are older."

"Yes, I guess we'd better let it alone," said Bert regretfully. "But you just ought to try it once, Miss Bess, to see how fine it is. Good-night!"

And the boys, glad to have escaped so lightly, were off with a shout, while Bess went in, to be met at the door by Fred.

The lads kept their promise the more easily because a heavy fall of snow, the night after their ice-boating, made the pond useless. But as winter is the boy's carnival time, and as boy ingenuity is endless as far as ways to tempt Providence are concerned, the quintette soon devised a new method of imperilling their lives. For two days Phil was shut up, as a result of his bump, and Rob only ventured as far as his cousin's, where he inwardly rejoiced that Fred could not see the yellowish purple bunch that closed his eye for the time being. By the following Saturday, however, the boys were ready for fresh sport, and betook themselves to Bert's yard, where they found that their mates had been wasting no time. At the back of the grounds, Bert and Sam were putting the finishing touches to an inclined plane of boards, while Ted was covering it with a thin layer of snow, and beating it to a hard, smooth sheet.