"Watch me!" cried Ted, as he began doing what he called a grapevine twist. To do it he darted farther out from shore than any of them had yet gone, and just as he was dong some fancy skating there was a loud booming, cracking sound that sent a shiver all through the ice on which the others were standing.
"Oh, come! Come back!" cried Jan to her brother. "The ice is going to break! We'll fall in!"
"That's right!" yelled Tom. "Come on back, Ted!"
Ted needed no urging, but skated as fast as he could toward shore, whither the others were fleeing as fast as they could strike out on their skates. They reached land safely, and, to their surprise, no big cracks or holes appeared in the ice. It seemed as solid as ever.
"I wonder what made that?" asked Janet, whose heart was beating fast.
"The ice broke somewhere," declared Lola.
"We'd better not go on it any more," said Mary.
"Well go up and ask Uncle Toby about it," suggested Ted. "I don't want to stop skating."
As the children were about to take off their skates to go back to the cabin, Aunt Sallie was seen coming down, dragging Trouble on a sled. There were patches of snow here and there so it was not hard to pull the sled along. And Trouble was not very heavy.
"Oh, Aunt Sallie, you ought to hear the ice crack!" called the children in a chorus.