The Monticellonian., 1918-12-13

"Comin' back from drowning is Il whole lot worse than betn' drowned You take it from me."
 Well" sighed Carolyn May, I'm glad to know that It's bothered me q good deal. If my mamma and papa had to be dead, maybe that was the incest way for them to go"
 
 Since Joseph Stagg had listened 10 the rambling tale of the sailor regard ing the sinking of the DunrayeH, he had borne the fate of his sister and her husband much in mind.
 He had come no nearer to deciding what to do with the apartment in New York and it's furnishings.
 After listening to Benjamin Hardy's story, the hardware dealer felt less in- elined than before to close up the af= fairs of Carolyn Mays small estate. = Not that he for | moment believed that there was q possibility of Hannah and her husband being alive. Five months had passed. In these days of wireless | telegraph and fast sea traffic such q thing could not be possible. The imagi- nation of the practical hardware mer- chant could not visualize it.
 One day when Carolyn May was wis iting Mrs Gormfey Chet burst in quite unexpectedly, for 1t was not yet mid afternoon.
 Mir Stagg has let me off to take Carolyn May sitdin' The ice ain't goin' to be safe in the cove for long now. Springs in the air o'ready. Both brooks are runnin full
 Carolyn May was delighted. AL though the sky was overcast and q storm threatening when they got down on the ice, neither the boy nor the lit- tie girl gave the weather a second thought. Nor had Ar. Stagg eonsid= cred the weather when he had allowed Ghet to leave the store that afternoon.
 Chet strapped on his skates, and then settled the little girl firmly on her sled, with Prince. riding behind.
 The boy harnessed himself with the 1 long towrope and skated away from the shore, dragging the sled after him at brisk pace.
 "Oh, my squealed Carolyn May, there isn't anybody else on the ice"
 We won't run into nobody, then, D l laughed the boy.
 It was too misty outside the cove to see the open water; but it was there, and Ghet knew it as well as anybody. He had ho intention of taking any risks-especially with Carolyn May in his charge.
 The wind blew out of the cove, too. As they drew away from the shelter of the land they felt its strength.
 Naturally, neither the boy nor the little girl-and surely not the dog looked back toward the land. Other wise, they would have seen the snow furry that swept down over the town and quickly hid it from the cove.
 Chet was skating his very swiftest. l Carolyn May was screaming with de- light. Prince parked joyfally. And suddenly, in startling fashion, they came to a Assure in the ice!
 The boy darted to one side, heeled on his right skate, and stopped. He had jerked the sled aside, too. yelling to Carolyn May to hold fast !" But Prince was flung from it, and scram- bled over the ice, barking loudly.
 "Oh, dear me-" cried Carolyn May You stopped too quick, Ghet Gorm- ley. Goodness There's a hole in the ice :"
 And didn't see it till we was al most in it." acknowledged Ghet. Its more'n hole Why! there's a great field of ice broke off and sailin' out into the lake"
 "Oh, my!' gasped the little girl.
 The hoy knew at once that he must be careful ill making his way home with the little girl. Having seen one great Assure in the ice, he might come upon another. IL seemed to him as though the ice under his feet was 1T motion. In the distance was the soun6 of a reverberating crash that CoulC mean but one thing The ice in tho cove was breaking up 7!
 The waters of the two brooks were pouring down into the cove. Sprins had really come, and the annual freshe was likely now ta force the ice entirely out of the cove and open the way fol traffic in d few hours.