Help me hold down this plank." Aroused by Grace's appeal, Julia meekly obeyed, and, still shivering violently, knelt beside Grace on the plank.

But it was too short; when Tom Gray seized one end of it he nearly upset both the girls into the water.
"Oh, what shall we do ?" cried Grace in despair when suddenly there came the thought of the little wagon.
Quickly untwisting a long muffler of red silk from about her neck, Grace tied it securely in the middle, around the cross piece of the tongue of the stout little vehicle.

Then she pushed it gently until it stood on the edge of the hole.

Giving one end of the muffler to Julia, Grace took the other herself.
"Catch hold of the tail piece, Tom," she cried.
Fortunately the ice was very rough where the girls were standing, or they would certainly have slipped and fallen.

They pulled and tugged until gradually the ice in front of them, with Tom's additional weight on it, instead of breaking began to sink.