The boys scrambled up on the ice and
pretended that they were at the North Pole.
"I'll be the savage Eskimo and chase you white men," said Carleton.
"Are Eskimos savage?" asked Sunny Boy doubtfully. "They don't look
savage in the geography book. They look fat."
"Of course they are savage," said Carleton. "Anybody who lives at the
North Pole is savage. Now when I chase you, you have to jump."
Carleton made an awful face, such as he thought a savage Eskimo would
make, and ran directly toward Sunny Boy, who jumped from his cake of
ice to the ground. But instead of landing on the ground, he landed in
water! Ice-cold water and up to his knees! And at that moment the ice
on which Carleton stood began to rock.
"The brook!" gasped Sunny Boy. "It's running over again! It's inside
my rubber boots!"
The boys jumped from the ice cakes on which they stood, and those who
had only rubbers on were wet at once to the knees.
"We'll be drowned!" cried Perry Phelps.
Sunny Boy saw a barn in the next field, and he thought if they could
only reach that they would be safe.
"We'll all take hold of hands," he said quickly. "And don't anybody
let go. There's a barn up there, and we can go and stay in that. Bob
will come and find us, I know he will."
The water kept rising higher and higher, and it was hard work to walk
against the current. Once Sunny Boy stumbled and fell, and once
Carleton lost his balance; but the others pulled them up again.
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