"We are going to see them skate on the pond back of the mill. Come, go!"

Pip could hardly be coming and going at the same time, but he left his
table and left his flowers. That day, the cold increased steadily.

"It is nippin' cold," said Aunt Stanshy to a neighbor, and what did Jack
Frost do but take out his nippers and clap them on Pip's flowers! The next
morning, Pip found a little heap of frozen petals on the "flower-table."
He could no more make them into flowers than if they had been petals of
snow!

That day, "owing to the weather," the "Fair" was closed. The boys divided
the little heap of cash and the large heap of nails, and each knight took
his share. The club now ceased to have an active existence. It became like
any other stick that is laid aside and set up in the corner. It seemed as
if the knights had forgotten that they belonged to a club whose expressive
title suggested energetic movement.




CHAPTER XVI.

THE FIRE.


Will Somers belonged to the "Cataract," which was not a "steamer," but a
hand-engine. To belong to the "Cataract" it was necessary to own a red
flannel shirt, a good pair of lungs, and a nimble pair of legs. The
shirt--did that mean fire? The lungs enabled one to do all the "hollering"