Under the binding power of this frost, the surface of the slow-flowing Glamour and of the swifter Wan-Water, were once more chilled and stiffened to ice, which every day grew thicker and stronger.

And now, there being no coverlet of snow upon it, the boys came out in troops, in their iron-shod shoes and their clumsy skates, to skim along those floors of delight that the winter had laid for them.

To the fishes the ice was a warm blanket cast over them to keep them from the frost.

But they must have been dismayed at the dim rush of so many huge forms above them, as if another river with other and awful fishes had buried theirs.

Alec and Willie left their boat--almost for a time forgot it--repaired their skates, joined their school-fellows, and shot along the solid water with the banks flying past them.