“Hold on! Hold on!” shouted Grandfather Gordon encouragingly.
Ordering Connie to keep back, he ran as close as he dared to the broken ice. Then, flinging himself flat, he pulled himself inch by inch toward the shivering boy.
Connie was very frightened, not only for the skater, but for Mr. Gordon as well. She could see the ice bending beneath his weight, and was afraid it might break at any instant and plunge him into the freezing water.
When Grandfather Gordon was within a foot of the boy, he stretched out his arms.
“Hold fast!” he commanded.
Inch by inch, he pulled the boy to ice which was thick enough to withstand their combined weights without breaking. Then he helped the lad to his feet, and wrapped his own coat about him.
“You’re the Gainsworth boy, aren’t you?” he said, recognizing him. “And a long ways from home too. I’ll take you there in my sled.”
“Th-thanks,” the boy said, his teeth chattering on the words.
Connie quickly rounded up all the Brownies, who removed their skates, and scrambled into the sled. Although the girls were sorry to have their fun end so abruptly, they were proud of Mr. Gordon for having saved the Gainsworth boy.
“You were lucky you didn’t drown,” Grandfather Gordon scolded the lad as he let him out at his own home twenty minutes later. “If you had used good common sense, you never would have risked your life skating on the thin ice.”