TO THE RESCUE
"Oh—oh!" gasped Grace, when she saw the dark and seething water all around them. "Oh, we're—afloat!"
"And it's a good thing, too!" exclaimed Betty quickly, as she squared the rudder-runner. "If we weren't afloat we'd be sinking, and I don't want to do that—it's too cold!"
Thus spoke the practical Little Captain, for she realized that now was the time to gain control over the nerves of her chums. Once they became hysterical there would be no managing them. And, as she spoke she glanced sharply at Mollie, who had opened her mouth to say something, but had thought better of it.
"But we're on a cake of—ice!" cried Amy.
"And, as the old wolf said to Little Red Riding Hood, so much the better to keep afloat with, my dear!" went on Betty gaily, a condition which she was far from feeling.
"WE ARE ON A CAKE OF ICE, AND WE ARE FLOATING AWAY!"
The Outdoor Girls in a Winter Camp. Page 160.
"Yes, it's a nice big cake, too!" declared Mollie, recognizing that Betty would need help—"backing-up"—in her efforts to calm the two more timid girls. "It's a lovely large cake," Mollie added. "The largest around of any. Just suppose we were on—that?" and she pointed to one about as large as a "five cent piece the ice man brings in on a hot day," to quote Betty's later characterization.