girl even said:

"You've got pluck to go out for your constitutional a morning like this,
Miss Nelson."

But to Nancy's ear it seemed as though the girl said it in a patronizing
way. She was a junior. Nobody else spoke to the freshman. So Nancy had
the secret of the frozen river to herself. She meant to go skating that
day if she could.

Every morning the girls of Pinewood Hall took their places after
breakfast--class by class--in the hall which balanced the dining room in
the other wing of the big house. A brief service of a devotional
character always began the real work of the day. Usually Madame Schakael
presided at these exercises. And sometimes she had that to say before
dismissing the girls that showed them that she had a keen oversight of
the school's manners and morals.

"I know," she said, on this morning, standing upon the footstool which
was always kept behind the desk-pulpit for her; "I know that many of you
have been watching and waiting, with great eagerness, for the skating
season to set in. Jack Frost, young ladies, seldom disappoints us here
at Pinewood Hall. The river is frozen over."

Here her remarks were punctuated by applause, and some suppressed "Oh,
goodies!" The Madame smiled indulgently at this enthusiasm.

"Our rules regarding the sport are pretty well understood, I believe. No
skating save during certain designated hours, and never unless Mr.
Pease, or the under gardener, is at the boathouse. Bounds extend from
the railroad bridge up the river toward town, to the Big Bend half a
mile below our boathouse. The girl who skates out of bounds--they are
plain enough--will not skate again for a month. Don't forget that,
girls.

"And now, for the rule that has always been in force at Pinewood,"
pursued the Madame, more earnestly, "and the one to which I must demand
perfect obedience.

"No girl is to try the ice by herself. No venturesome one must go down
there and try the ice without Mr. Pease, or Samuel, being on hand.
Remember!

"And," said Madame Schakael, slowly, "I hear that there has already been
somebody on the ice this morning. Whether it was one of you girls, or
not, we do not know. But when Mr. Pease came to report to me that the
ice was safe for skating he informed me that somebody had been sliding
down there, early as it was when he reached the river.

"If any girl has broken our ironclad rule on this point, I want to know
it. I expect to see that girl at once after prayers