Heroism, like cowardice, is contagious, and I do not think there was one of us by that time who would have feared to dare or grudged to die.
As it was, the heavy man stood still and shouted for the rope.

It had come, and perhaps it was not the smallest effect of the day's teaching, that those on the bank paid it out at once to those in the water till it reached the leader, without waiting to ask why he wanted it.

The grace of obedience is slow to be learnt by disputatious northmen, but we had had some hard teaching that afternoon.
When the heavy man got the rope he tied the middle part of it round himself, and, coiling the shorter end, he sent it, as if it had been a quoit, skimming over the ice towards the school-master.

As it unwound itself it slid along, and after a struggle Mr.Wood grasped it.

I fancy he fastened it round the lad's body; and got his own hands freer to break the ice before them.