“And yet—” her voice dropped. “How strange! They did not tell me there was a lake on the other side, a gem of a lake hidden away beneath the ridges. I—I doubt if they knew. How little some people know about the places near their own homes!
“I—I’ll give it a name!” she cried, seized by a sudden inspiration. “It shall be called ‘Lost Lake.’ Lost Lake,” she murmured. As she looked down upon it, it seemed a mirror set in a frame of darkest green.
“Hemlock turned to pitchy black
Against the whiteness at their back.”
“My Lost Lake,” she whispered, “I must see it closer.”
Little did she dream that this simple decision would result in mysteries and adventures such as she had seldom before known.
“How wonderful it all is!” she exclaimed again, as at last her feet rested on the glistening surface of the little lost lake.
She went shuffling across the dark, deeply frozen surface. The first spell of severe weather of that autumn had come with a period of dead calm. All the small lakes of the island had frozen over smooth as glass. And now, though the ice was more than a foot thick, it was possible while gliding across it to catch sight of dull gray rocks and deep yawning shadows where the water was deep.
Only the day before on Long Lake, which was close to Vivian’s home, Jeanne and her friend had thrown themselves flat down on the ice, shaded their eyes and peered into the shadowy depth below. They had found it a fascinating adventure into the great unknown. In places, standing like a miniature forest, tall, heavy-leafed pikeweeds greeted their eyes. Among these, like giant dirigibles moored to the tree-tops, long black pickerel lay. Waving their fins gently to and fro, they stared up with great round eyes. Here, too, at times they saw whole schools of yellow perch and wall-eyes. Once, too, they caught sight of a scaly monster more than six feet long. He was so huge and ugly, they shuddered at sight of him. Vivian had decided he must be a sturgeon and marveled at his presence in these waters.
Recalling all this, Jeanne now slipped the snowshoes from off her feet and, throwing herself flat on the ice, began her own little exploring expedition beneath the surface of her own private lake.