strongly sympathized with him and would presently make loud and angry
cause against his enemies. "What is it," asked Perry of his
unsuspecting mind, "which makes my father so unappeasable? What is
there in me which broods upon his just and honorable life, and which
he cannot drive away though he tries? Has he some learned
superstition, some religious vow or mistaken sacrifice?"

Perry turned down a lane and then into the bed of a frozen brook, and
coming in sight of the broad river, espied his father, gun in hand,
stealthily creeping under a load of brush and twigs which the Judge's
negro had piled about his back and head, to conceal his figure from a
flock of ducks that were bathing and diving in an open place of deep
water, to which the ice had not extended.

The gliding brush heap, by slow and flitting advances, had progressed
about to within gunshot of the scarce suspecting fowls, and Perry and
the negro, from different sides of the cove, watched with the keenest
interest--when suddenly, with very little noise, the ice gave way and
Judge Whaley had sunk in deep water, loaded down with heavy gunning
boots, shot-belt, overcoat and gun. The negro stood paralyzed a
minute and then fell upon his knees, unknowing what to do. A sense of
joy started in Perry Whaley's breast as strong as his apprehensive
fears. He might be made the instrument of saving that beloved life,
and dissipating the spell of its indifference!

Nothing but this ardent passion saved Perry himself from drowning. He
had crossed the cove ere yet the impulse of parental recognition had
taken form, and throwing a rein from the carriage around the negro
man's armpits, and seizing a long fence-rail, ran rapidly across,
pulling both toward the point of danger.