case.

"What is the matter with you, Harry?" he asked.

"Oh, I went to help Charley, and tumbled over the same log which
capsized him," was the answer. "He says that the ice is giving way, and
certainly the water does look terribly near to it." Such, indeed, was
the case. Philip, from having kept his eyes fixed on the land-marks
about D'Arcy's clearing, had not observed this so much as Harry now did,
with his nose close down to it. Wisely keeping at a little distance, he
advised them to crawl away from the spot where they had fallen, and
then, a little apart from each other, to get on their feet and proceed.
Once more they were on their course, but Philip made them keep one on
each side of him, going at a less speed than before. It was nervous
work, though, for the cracking noise increased in loudness till it
rivalled that of thunder--seeming to pass under their very feet. Speed
and lightness of tread was everything. For himself Philip had no fear.
He dreaded only lest Charley should again fall, and so did his best to
keep up his spirits, and to banish the nervousness from which he saw
that he was suffering. As they neared the shore the noises ceased and
their spirits rose, though they were not sorry to see D'Arcy standing on
the beach to receive them.

His greeting was cordial. "I have been watching you for some time, and
did I own a pair of skates I should have come out to meet you," he said.
"When you all stopped, I began to form a sleigh to push off to your
assistance, in case any one of you should have been hurt, when I
observed that you were all on the move again. Instead, therefore, of
going on with it, I sent in Terry to cook some dinner, which you will be
wanting after your long fly."

The dinner was the usual bush fare--pork and potatoes (forming an Irish
stew), fish, caught before the frost began, and a dumpling, which
probably had been thought of only when the guests were first descried in
the distance. The young men did ample justice to the feast, and perhaps
spent a longer time over it than they intended. They had plenty to say,
about their own experiences especially; and when the young Ashtons
compared notes with D'Arcy, they had reason to consider their own trials
far less than his. He had been left alone to fight the battle of life,
or rather with a mother and sister depending on him. After a once fine
property which he had nominally inherited had been sold in the Irish
Incumbered Esta