The morning sun darted its clear rays upon the ice, which did not
look dark and forbidding, like most spring ice, but sparkled temptingly.
As far as they could see, the ice was firm and dry. The rain had run
down into cracks and hollows, or been absorbed by the ice itself. The
children saw only the sound ice.
Osa, the goose girl, and little Mats were on their way North, and they
could not help thinking of all the steps they would be saved if they
could cut straight across the lake instead of going around it. They
knew, to be sure, that spring ice is treacherous, but this looked
perfectly secure. They could see that it was several inches thick near
the shore. They saw a path which they might follow, and the opposite
shore appeared to be so near that they ought to be able to get there in
an hour.
"Come, let's try!" said little Mats. "If we only look before us, so that
we don't go down into some hole, we can do it."
So they went out on the lake. The ice was not very slippery, but rather
easy to walk upon. There was more water on it than they expected to see,
and here and there were cracks, where the water purled up. One had to
watch out for such places; but that was easy to do in broad daylight,
with the sun shining.
The children advanced rapidly, and talked only of how sensible they were
to have gone out on the ice instead of tramping the slushy road.
Pages:
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383