Fortunately, for the peace of mind of Chet and his widowed mother, they did not suspect the hardware dealer of holding this opinion. Just now the boy was delighted to lend himself to Carolyn May's pleasure. He strapped on his skates, and then settled the little girl firmly on her sled. She sat forward, and he lifted Prince up behind her, where the dog sat quite securely, with his forepaws over his mistress' shoulders, his jaws agape, and his tongue hanging out like a moist, red necktie.

"He's laughin-just as broad as he can laugh, Car'lyn May," chuckled Chet. "All ready, now?"

"Oh, we're all right, Chet," the little girl cried gaily.

The boy harnessed himself with the long tow-rope and skated away from the sh.o.r.e, dragging the sled after him at a brisk pace. Chet was a fine skater, and although the surface of the ice was rather spongy he had no difficulty in making good time towards the mouth of the cove.

"Oh, my!" squealed Carolyn May, "there isn't anybody else on the ice."

"We won't run into n.o.body, then," laughed the boy.

There were schooners and barges and several steam craft tied up at the docks. These had been frozen in all winter. They would soon be free, and lake traffic would begin again.

It was too misty outside the cove to see the open water; but it was there, and Chet knew it as well as anybody. He had no intention of taking any risks-especially with Carolyn May in his charge.

The wind blew out of the cove, too. As they drew away from the shelter of the land they felt its strength. It was not a frosty wind. Indeed, the temperature was rising rapidly, and, as Chet had said, there was a hint of spring in the air.

Naturally, neither the boy nor the little girl-and surely not the dog-looked back towards the land. Otherwise, they would have seen the snow flurry that swept down over the town and quickly hid it from the cove.

Chet was skating his very swiftest. Carolyn May was screaming with delight. Prince barked joyfully. And, suddenly, in a startling fashion, they came to a fissure in the ice!

The boy darted to one side, heeled on his right skate, and stopped. He had jerked the sled aside, too, yelling to Carolyn May to "hold fast!"

But Prince was flung from it, and scrambled over the ice, barking loudly.

"Oh, dear me!" cried Carolyn May. "You stopped too quick, Chet Gormley.

Goodness! There's a hole in the ice!"

"And I didn't see it till we was almost in it," acknowledged Chet. "It's more'n a hole. Why! there's a great field of ice broke off and sailin'

out into the lake."

"Oh, my!" gasped the little girl, awed, "isn't that great, Chet?"

"It's great that we didn't get caught on it," muttered Chet, deeply impressed by the peril.

"We can't go any farther, can we?" she asked.

"Nope. Got to turn back. Why, hullo! it's snowin'!"

"Dear me! and we didn't bring any umbrella," observed Carolyn May.

"You call Prince. I guess we'd better get back," Chet said more seriously. "We're three miles from town, if we're an inch."

"And we can't see the town or the boats or the docks! Oh, Chet! isn't this _fun_? I never was out in a snowstorm on the ice before."

The snow was damp and clung to their clothing. Chet saw that it was going to clog his skates, too. He would not let the child see that he was worried; but the situation was no ordinary one.

In the first place, it was hard to tell the points of the compa.s.s in the snowstorm. Prince might be able to smell his way back to land; but Chet Gormley was not endowed with the same sense of smell that Prince possessed.

The boy knew at once that he must be careful in making his way home with the little girl. Having seen one great fissure in the ice, he might come upon another. It seemed to him as though the ice under his feet was in motion. In the distance was the sound of a reverberating crash that could mean but one thing. _The ice in the cove was breaking up!_

The waters of the two brooks were pouring down into the cove. This swelling flood lifted the great sheet of spongy ice and set it in motion. Everywhere at the head of the cove the ice was cracking and breaking up. The wind helped. Spring had really come, and the annual freshet was likely now to force the ice entirely out of the cove and open the way for traffic in a few hours.

CHAPTER XXI-THE CHAPEL BELL

If Joseph Stagg had obeyed the precept of his little niece on this particular afternoon and had been "looking up," instead of having his nose in the big ledger, making out monthly statements, he might have discovered the coming storm in season to withdraw his permission to Chet to take Carolyn May out on the ice.

It was always dark enough in the little back office in winter for the hardware dealer to have a lamp burning. So he did not notice the snow flurry that had taken Sunrise Cove in its arms until he chanced to walk out to the front of the store for needed exercise.

"I declare to man, it's snowing!" muttered Joseph Stagg. "Thought we'd got through with that for this season."

He opened the store door. There was a chill, clammy wind, and the snow was damp and packed quickly under foot. The street was already well covered, and the snow stuck to the awning frames and the fronts of the buildings across the way.

"Hum! If that Chet Gormley were here now, he might be of some use for once," thought Mr. Stagg. "But, of course, he never is here when I want him. He could clean this walk before folks get all balled up walking on it."

Suddenly he bethought him of the errand that had taken the boy away from the store. Not at once was the hardware merchant startled by the thought; but he cast a critical glance skyward, trying to measure the downfall of snow.

"He'll be coming back-with Hannah's Car'lyn. Of course, he isn't rattle-brained enough to take her out on the ice when it's snowing like this."

"Hey, Stagg!" shouted a shopkeeper from over the way, who had likewise come to the door, "did you hear that?"

"Hear what?" asked Joseph Stagg, puzzled.

"There she goes again! That's ice, old man. She's breaking up. We'll have spring with us in no time now. I told Scofield this morning he could begin to load that schooner of his. The ice is going out of the cove."

The reverberating crash that had startled Chet Gormley had startled Joseph Stagg as well.

"My goodness!" gasped the hardware dealer, and he started instantly away from the store, bareheaded as he was, without locking the door behind him-something he had never done before, since he had established himself in business on the main street of Sunrise Cove.

Just why he ran he could scarcely have explained. Of course, the children had not gone out in this snowstorm! Mrs. Gormley-little sense as he believed the seamstress possessed-would not have allowed them to venture.

Yet, why had Chet not returned? Mr. Stagg knew very well that the ungainly boy was no shirk. Having been sent home for the particular purpose of taking Carolyn May out on her sled, he would have done that, or returned immediately to the store. Although p.r.o.ne to find fault with Chet Gormley, the hardware dealer recognised his good qualities as certainly as anybody did.

He quickened his pace. He was running-slipping and sliding over the wet snow-when he turned into the street on which his store boy and his widowed mother lived.

The cottage was a little, boxlike place, and one had to climb steps to get to it. Mrs. Gormley saw him coming from the windows of the tiny front room which served her as parlour and workroom combined. The seamstress tottered to the door and opened it wide, clinging to it for support.

"Oh, oh, Mr. Stagg! What's happened now?" she gasped. "I hope poor Chet ain't done nothin' that he shouldn't ha' done. I'm sure he tries to do his very best. If he's done anything--"

"Where _is_ he?" Joseph Stagg managed to say. "Where-where is he?"

repeated the widow. "Oh, do come in, Mr. Stagg. It's snowin', ain't it?"

Mr. Stagg plunged into the little house, head down, and belligerent.

"Where's that plagued boy?" he demanded again. "Don't tell me he's taken Hannah's Car'lyn out on the cove in this storm!"