ed this and the
Lady Principal sank down in a faint. Then another groan escaped
them--the merest possibility of hope.

Behold! The girl did not fall! Another's small hand reached over the
low side of the toboggan and clutched the blanket-covered shoulder of
the imperiled child. Another hand! the other shoulder, and hope grew
stronger. Someone had caught the falling Dorothy--she and her
would-be-rescuer were now moving--moving--slowly downward along the
very edge--one swaying perilously with the motion, the other wholly
unseen save for those outstretched hands, with their death-fast grip
upon the snowy wool.

Down--down! And faster now! Till the hands of the tallest watchers
could reach and clasp the feet, then the whole precious little body of
"Miss Dixie," their favorite from the Southland.

But even then, as strong arms drew her into their safe shelter, the
small hands which had supported her to safety clung still so tight
that only the Bishop's could loose their clasp.

"Gwendolyn! You brave, sweet girl! Let go--let go. It's all right
now--Dorothy did not fall--You saved her life. Look up, my daughter.
Don't faint now when all is over. Look up, you noble child, and hear
me tell you: Dorothy is safe and it is you who saved her life. At the
risk of your own you saved her life."

Clasped close in his fatherly arms, Gwendolyn shuddered but obeyed and
looked up into the Bishop's face.

"Say that again. Please. Say that again--very slow--if it's the--the
truth."

[Illustration: "SOMEONE HAD CAUGHT THE FALLING GIRL." _Dorothy at Oak
Knowe._]

"Gwendolyn, I tell you now, in the presence of God and these
witnesses, it has been your precious privilege to save a human life,
by your swift thought and determined action you have saved the life of
Dorothy Calvert, and God bless you for it."

"Then we are quits!"

For another moment after she had said those words she still rested
quietly where she was, then slowly rose and looked about her.

Dorothy had been in the greater peril of the two, yet more unconscious
of it. She had not seen how high above the ground she hung, nor how
directly beneath was the lake with the thinly frozen spots whence the
thicker ice had been cut for the ice-houses; nor how there were heaped
up rocks bordering the water, left as nature had designed to beautify
the scene.

She was the quickest to recover her great fright and she was wholly
unhurt. Her really greater wonder was that poor Mis