he looked on, Doddy disappeared, and a shout of terror arose from the
other boys, who were too full of fear to do much toward helping the
unfortunate child, though one or two slid down prostrate and tried to
crawl to the hole into which Doddy had fallen, in order to help him out
with their sticks.

It remained for Bildy to come to their assistance. With a frightened
cry the man rushed over the ice to the spot, and regardless of the
cautions which the others shrilled at him, plunged into the water.
Doddy had fallen in where there was only very thin ice around the edge
of an open sheet of water. Luckily, it was shallow for a man, though
it covered the child. Bildy managed to seize the boy and rose up
gasping from the pool, holding Doddy aloft. He seated the frightened
child on his shoulder, and was able to keep half his own body out of
the water. Thus they remained till help came in the shape of one or
two farm-servants, who had been summoned by the screams of the boys.

It was not a difficult matter to get the two out of the water safely;
indeed, any one more sensible than poor Bildy could have lifted the
child onto thicker ice, after wading some paces in the water. Both
were shivering with cold and drenched with water, which froze on their
clothes during their hurried progress home to bed.

The after-effects were not serious, as far as Doddy was concerned. He
got a severe cold, but nothing worse--not taking into account the
castigation administered with a good-will by his "auntie." With poor
Bildy it was different. He had been in the ice-cold water far longer
than the boy, and a serious attack of pneumonia was the result. The
poor fellow had probably little stamina. He did not rally, even when
the climax seemed to have been successfully passed, but grew weaker