"Well, I don't know what you would call it, but if somebody tried to make me stay at home the only day we are likely to have any fun on the ice, I should feel ready to punch him."
"I don't believe Chandos junior will stay. But now, what are you going to do with him when he comes?"
"Do with him! Do you think we want to eat him, Stewart?"
"No, I don't suppose you do; but mind, there's to be no harm done—no sousing him, or anything of that sort. If it's just a bit of fun, to give Chandos senior a fright, I'll be in it."
"I should think you would, for things are awfully slow here now. Tom says you used to be up to anything, but since Miss Chandos—"
"There, we won't talk about that; Tom knows all about it, if you don't." And I was just turning away when Frank Chandos ran towards us with his skates in his hand, looking angry and defiant at his brother, who had followed him half across the playground.
A few minutes afterwards we started for the ponds in groups and knots of twos and threes, all laughing and chattering together, the masters at the head, and leading the way to the broadest and shallowest.
"Now, boys, I think you can skate and slide to your hearts' delight here; but mind, Dr. Mellor has given orders that no one is to go to the pond round by the alder bushes, for there are dangerous holes in it, as you all know, and if the ice should break—well, you know what the consequences are likely to be."
"All right, sir, we'll keep clear of that," said two or three, as they were fastening the straps of their skates, while some, who had already begun sliding, laughed at the notion of the ice breaking.
"It is as firm as the schoolroom floor, and one is as likely to give way as the other."