shorter. "He had no time to write during the
day," he explained. At night he was either so tired that he went to
bed as soon as he had his supper, or some of the boys that worked
where he did came round for him to go out with them. He had been to
the library several times, and to a free band-concert. When he was
out of debt, he intended to get a season lecture course ticket and go
to other entertainments once in awhile to keep from getting the
blues.

He did not mention some of the other places to which he had gone with
the boys. It would only worry his Aunt Eunice, he thought. Probably
she wouldn't think it was any harm if she lived in the city. People
in little places were apt to be narrow-minded, he told himself. He
could feel that his own opinions were broadening every day.

He wrote to Macklin on Thanksgiving Day, saying that he intended to
make the most of his holiday and skate all the afternoon. He was glad
that he had brought his skates, for the ice was in fine condition.
That was the last letter home for two weeks.

While Miss Eunice worried, and Philippa haunted the post-office, he
was lying ill in his cheerless little bedroom, on the top floor of
the cheap lodging-house. He had skated not only Thanksgiving
afternoon, but again at night when the ice was illuminated by
bonfires and lanterns. There was a danger-signal posted farther down
where the ice was thin. He had avoided it all the afternoon, but
intent on cutting some fancy figure one of the boys had taught him,
he did not notice how near he was to the dangerous spot until he
heard a cracking noise all round him, and it was too late to save
himself from a plunge into the icy water.

Although he was helped out immediately, and ran every step of the way
to his room, he was shaking with a chill when he reached it. All the
covering he could pile on the bed did not stop the chattering of his
teeth as he lay shivering between the cold sheets. In the morning he
was burning with fever. There was such a sharp pain in his lungs that
he could not draw a full breath.

He tried to get up and dress, but the attempt made him so weak and
dizzy that he could only stagger back to bed and lie there in a sort
of stupor. It was not quite clear to him who brought a doctor, but
one came in the course of the morning and left two kinds of little
pellets and a glass of water on the chair beside his bed. He was to
take two pink pellets every hour and one white one every two ho