A pale moon still hung low on the horizon. The river seemed as black as ink and not a ripple appeared upon its surface.
"Oh, dear! it"s not frozen at all," was Nancy"s, first thought.
And then she saw the sheen of the moonlight across the black surface.
"That never is water in the world!" she gasped, and half running, half sliding, descended the steep bank to the verge of the river.
The wide expanse of the stream proved to be sheathed entirely in black, new ice.
Nancy uttered a cry of delight and touched it with one strongly-shod foot, and then the other. It rang under her heel--there was not a single crack of protest. It bore her weight as firmly as a rock.
Breathlessly Nancy tried it farther out. The keen frost of a single night had chained the river firmly. She slid a little way. Then she ran for momentum, and slid smoothly, well balanced from her hips, with her feet wide spread. Her red lips opened with a sigh of delight. Her eyes sparkled and the hair was tossed back from under her woolen cap.
"Great! Great!" she cried aloud, when she came to a stop.
She went back down the slide. Her boots rang on the ice as though it were steel. Again and again she slid until there was a well-defined path upon the ice--a path at least ten yards long.
But the horizon grew rosy-red and the dropping moon paled into insignificance. This warned her that the breakfast call would soon sound and she left the ice reluctantly and ran back to the hall.
Before she reached the kitchens the sun popped up and she ran in the path made by its glowing rays across the frozen fields.
It was so cold that the early rising girls were hugging the radiators in the big hall when Nancy came in from the rear, all in a delightful glow.
Some of them nodded to her. One girl even said:
"You"ve got pluck to go out for your const.i.tutional 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. n.o.body 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--cla.s.s by cla.s.s--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. Of course, if n.o.body here is guilty we must believe that some pa.s.ser-by ventured down upon the river while crossing Pinewood estate.
"Now, young ladies, I need say nothing more on this subject, I believe.
After recitations to-day, those who wish may enjoy the pleasure and exercise of ice-skating. The boathouse will be warmed. Samuel will be there to sharpen skates for those who wish. And he can supply you with extra straps or other appliances. You understand that he makes a little extra money that way, and I approve of it."
Then she touched the rising bell, and instantly the girls arose and a bustle of low converse and the rustle of dresses and clack of shoes on the polished floor made up the usual confusion of sounds as the girls separated for their cla.s.srooms. Nearly four hundred girls manage to make considerable noise.
Nancy went immediately to the Madame"s office. It was the first time she had ever been called there; it was the first time, indeed, that she had ever been accused of any kind of a fault since arriving at the school.
So she did not feel very happy. She had not known of the rule which Madame Schakael had said was so well understood. She had not meant to break the law.
But she could see very clearly that the rule was a just one. She had no business to venture on the ice without asking permission. And her heart throbbed and her face flushed and paled by turns as she waited for the princ.i.p.al to appear.
But when Madame Schakael entered the anteroom she was not alone. Nancy, from within, heard another voice--a shrill and unpleasant voice which she very well knew.
"Well, I don"t care what you say, Madame, it _was_ her. There"s no other girl in the whole school who gets up so early and disturbs us other girls--so now! She"s stirring around half the night, I declare! And she was the _only_ girl out of doors this morning so early."
"And she is your roommate; is she, Miss Rathmore?" interrupted the Madame"s smooth, low voice.
"Well! I never wanted her! I wrote home and told my mother she was a n.o.body----"
"Your mother was kind enough to write to me on the subject," said the princ.i.p.al of Pinewood Hall. "But I could not allow any change in the dormitory arrangements for the inconsequential reasons given. Nancy Nelson is quite the same as any other girl at the Hall. I wish to hear nothing more on _that_ topic, Cora.
"But this other matter, of course, is different. If a rule has been broken of course I must take cognizance of it. And I feel sure that if your roommate was the person on the ice this morning, she will report the fact to me herself----"
She pushed the office door wide open. Nancy had listened to this conversation perforce. There had been no escape for her.
"Ah! As I expected," said the doll-like little woman, smiling calmly at Nancy. "You see how mistaken one may be, Cora? Nancy is here ahead of us."
Cora Rathmore shrank back from the door with a very red face. Nancy"s eyes flashed as she looked at her ill-natured roommate. She realized well enough that Cora had deliberately--and without sufficient evidence herself--tried to get her into trouble with the princ.i.p.al.
Cora was not easily embarra.s.sed, however. In a moment she shot the other girl a scornful glance and, without a word to Madame Schakael, walked out of the office. It really did seem as though it was Nancy who had done the wrong, instead of her roommate.
"You are here to see me, Miss Nelson?" asked the Madame, briskly, ignoring the other girl and her report.
"Yes, Madame."
"Because of what I said at prayers?"
"Yes, Madame."
"You are a new girl. Did you not know of the rule that all girls must keep off the river until it is p.r.o.nounced safe by Mr. Pease?"
"I did not know of the rule. And I did not think that I was doing wrong when I went on the ice this morning," returned Nancy, quietly.
"I believe you, Miss Nelson. You are excused. Don"t do it again. I can"t afford to have any of my girls drowned--especially one who stands as well as you do in the weekly reports," and the little woman patted her on her cheek and smiled.
"You may go skating this afternoon, if you wish, and if you are perfect in your recitations, as I suppose you will be," continued Madame Schakael. "Wait, my dear! Here are two letters for you. They are both from Mr. Henry Gordon"s office, and I presume they are from him. I make it a rule never to open letters from the parents or guardians of my girls; other letters, you understand, must be scrutinized unless the correspondence has already been arranged for."
She pa.s.sed the wondering Nancy two businesslike looking envelopes with the card printed in the corner of "Ambrose, Necker & Boles."
"Thank you, Madame," said the girl, and hurried away to her first cla.s.s with the letters fairly burning a hole in her pocket.