“Now, if we’d been away off somewhere, with no house near by,” remarked Leslie, as with the others he stood and watched Fred gallop homeward; “we’d have had to build a couple of fires, and strip Fred so we could rub him down while his duds were getting dry. But his mother’ll fix him all right.”
“Whew! what a splash he did make out there!” exclaimed Peg.
“I’m glad it wasn’t me,” remarked Elmer; “because I’m afraid my father’d take my skates away for the rest of the winter. He doesn’t believe in boys being so reckless.”
“All the same,” Andy Hale went on to say, “I noticed, Elmer, that you ran out there on the planks several times, and if the ice had given way you’d have been as deep in it as Fred.”
“Oh! that was another thing,” replied Elmer. “It was to save life that I took a chance, and my father always told me he’d stand for that every time. I’m not meaning to tell him a word about this, but he’ll hear from other people. I know he’ll ask me if I was in the bunch, and did my little stunt with the rest. I’d hate to tell him I just stood by, and never raised a hand to help poor Fred.”
“All of you deserve the highest praise,” said Dick. “We worked together, and I’m sure I never could have got a plank out to Fred before he gave up the ghost and sank, without your help.”
Of course there was no more temptation for any of them to make use of their skates.
Accordingly, the party wended its way back to town, and the news of Fred’s mishap was soon common talk. Perhaps it might serve to arouse the authorities to some action looking to forbidding skating on the big pond until the ice was considered safe for a crowd.
“How about meeting somewhere this very afternoon,” suggested Leslie, as they stopped on a corner before scattering to their various homes. “Maybe Dick will read his farce to us.”
“A bully idea!” Peg declared, and others immediately echoed his words.