Well, Tom Kendrick, you were the first to testify against him: what have you to say against this punish

22. Tom rose, with his lips trembling, and every nerve full of excitement. "Please, sir," said Tom, "I should like to have you give Andrew another chance. I think it's an awful thing to send a boy home without giving him more than one chance."

I watched Andrew, with eager eyes, during the closing passages of his trial. When Tom rose, on behalf of the whole school, to plead for him that he might have one more trial - the defiant look faded from his face, and he gave a convulsive gulp, as if his heart had risen to his throat, and he was struggling to keep it down.

23. When Tom sat down, Andrew rose, staggered, and hesitated for a moment: then, overcome by shame, grief.

2. The cold seemed to have frozen tree, and air, and water, and every living thing. Even the ringing of my skates echoed back from the hill with a startling clearness; and the crackle of the ice, as I passed over it, in my course, seemed to follow the tide of the river with lightning speed.

3. I had gone up the river nearly two miles, when, coming to a little stream which flows into the larger, I turned into it to explore its course. Fir and hemlock of a century's growth met overhead, and formed an archway, radiant with frost-work. All was dark within ; but I was young and fearless, and, as I peered into an unbroken forest that reared itself on the borders of the stream, I laughed with very joyousness.

4. My wild hurrah rang through the silent woods, and I stood listening to the echo that reverberated again and again, until all was hushed. Suddenly, a sound arose, it seemed to me to come from beneath the ice; it was low and tremulous at first, but it ended in one long, wild yell. I was appalled. Never, before, had such a noise met my ears. Presently, I heard the brush-wood on shore crash, as if from the tread of some animal. The blood rushed to my forehead, my energies returned, and I looked around me for some means of escape.

5. The moon shone through the opening at the mouth of the creek by which I had entered the forest, and, considering this the best means of escape, I darted toward it like an arrow. It was hardly a hundred yards distant, and the swallow could scarcely have excelled me in flight; yet, as I turned my head to the shore, I could see several dark objects dashing through the brush-wood at a pace. nearly double in speed to my own. By their great speed, and the short yells which they occasionally gave, I knew, at once, that these were the much dreaded gray wolves.

b The bushes that skirted the shore flow nest with

the velocity of lightning, as I dashed on, in my flight, to pass the narrow opening. The outlet was nearly gained a few seconds more, and I would be comparatively safe; but, in a moment, my pursuers appeared on the bank above me, which here rose to the height of ten feet. There was no time for thought; I bent my head, and dashed madly forward. The wolves sprang, but, miscalculating my speed, fell behind, while their intended prey glided out upon the river!

7. Nature turned me toward home. The light flakes of snow spun from the iron of my skates, and I was some distance from my pursuers, when their fierce howl told me I was still their fugitive. I did not look back; I did not feel afraid, or sorry, or glad; one thought of home, of the bright faces awaiting my return, and of their tears, if they never should see me, and then all the energies of body and mind were exerted for escape.

8. I was perfectly at home on the ice. Many were the days that I had spent on my good skates, never thinking that they would thus prove my only means of safety. Every half-minute, a furious yelp from my fierce attendants made me but too certain that they were in close pursuit. Nearer and nearer they came, at last, I heard their feet, pattering on the ice,-I even felt their very breath and heard their snuffing scent! Every nerve and muscle in my frame was stretched to the utmost tension.

9. The trees along the shore seemed to dance in an uncertain light, and my brain turned with my own breathless speed. My pursuers seemed to hiss forth their breath with a sound truly horrible, when an involuntary motion on my part turned me out of my course. The wolves, close behind, unable to stop, and as unable to turn on the smooth ice, slipped and fell, still going on far ahead.