250 THE SWAN AND HER CREW. 



hard, and perfectly free from snow. Early and late, the boys 

 sped lightly over it on their skates, enjoying to the full this 

 most invigorating and healthy exercise. 



Frank and Jimmy practised threes and eights and the spread- 

 eagle, and the other now old-fashioned figures, with great 

 assiduity; and Dick, having soon mastered the inside edge, 

 tumbled about most indefatigably in his efforts to master the 

 outside edge. 



The frost continued with unabated severity, and soon the ice 

 was two feet thick, and the shallower portions of the broad 

 were frozen to the bottom. One day Dick was skating at a 

 good pace before the wind, when something beneath his feet in 

 the transparent ice attracted his attention, and in his haste to 

 stop he came down very heavily. He shouted to Frank and 

 Jimmy to come up, and when .they did so, he pointed to the 

 ice at his feet. Midway in the water, where it was about two 

 feet deep, was a shoal of a dozen perch, most of them good 

 sized ones, frozen into the ice in various attitudes, betokening 

 their last struggle to escape. The reason of their being so 

 caught was explained by the fact that they were in a slight 

 depression surrounded by shallower and weedy water, which 

 had frozen so as to shut them in, and give them no means of 

 escape before the water in which they swam became solid. 



" That fellow is fully two pounds weight. I wonder if they 

 are dead," said Frank. 



"Of course they must be," answered Jimmy; " they cannot 

 be frozen stiff like that and live." 



" I am not so sure about that,". observed Dick ; " caterpillars 

 have been known to be frozen quite stiff, and to all appearance 

 lifeless, yet they revive when they are warmed." 



" Well," said Frank, " I tell you what we will do. We will 

 dig them out, and put them into water in the house, and give 

 them a chance." 



They did so, and five of the perch, including the biggest and 

 the smallest, came to life, and were subsequently restored to the 

 broad. 



One day a rapid thaw set in, and the ice was covered with a 

 thin layer of water. During the night, however, the wind 

 suddenly changed, and this layer of water froze so quickly, 

 that it held fast by the feet many water-fowl which had been 

 resting on the ice. 



