She accepted this aid gladly. At first she almost drew him into the water. Then he braced his heels in the bank and flung himself back to balance her weight. First one foot and then the other Nan pulled out of the icy mire, and in half a minute she was ashore.
“Oh! how can I thank you?” she cried. “If you hadn’t been here——”
“It’s all right—it’s all right, Miss,” the boy stammered, and immediately began to back away. “You needn’t thank me. I’d have done it for anybody.”
Nan was eyeing the lad curiously. Many thoughts beside those of gratitude for his timely help, were passing through her mind.
“Who are you?” she asked abruptly. “Do you live around here?”
The boy was a pale youth, but he flushed deeply now and edged farther away, as though he really feared her.
“Oh, yes! I live near here. I—I’m glad I could help you. Good-bye!”
Before Nan could stop him by word or act, he turned around and ran up the shore of the lake until he was hidden from the girl’s surprised view.
“Well! isn’t that the strangest thing?” demanded Nan, of nobody at all. Then she realized that she was getting very cold indeed, standing there with wet feet and ankles, and she herself started on a run for the steps to the top of the bluff, and had just time enough to get to the Hall and change her shoes and stockings before breakfast.
At the table she was giving to Bess an eager account of her adventure when Laura Polk said to the chums from Tillbury: