Robert, we'll have you out!" And so they did; but he had a narrow escape, and if it had not been for the plan of this clever lad, poor Robert must have been drowned; for the ice kept breaking at the sides as he laid hold of it, and there were no ropes or ladders near, and no time to run and fetch them.

Boys! mind what you do this winter; don't venture on ice over deep waters. We know how very pleasant and even delightful it is to go out on a fine frosty day and slide or skate upon the clear bright ice; and there may be no harm in that at all, providing you do not venture on deep waters. The most dangerous places are running rivers, where the ice does not freeze to the same thickness as it does on still water.

are dangerous too, as well as rivers.

Deep ponds

The safest

place is a meadow covered over with water, frozen hard enough to bear you, and where if you do break through to the knees you may soon get out again. Take our advice then-and dont go on deep waters.

Mind one thing, all of you, whether sabbath scholars or not, dont go on the ice to play on the Lord's Day. We have heard of some who went and never came home again alive. They were drowned! You would not like to be drowned at all, but to be drowned whilst sabbath breaking -how awful!

IT was a calm, sunny day in the year 1750; the scene, a piece of forest land on the Northern neck of Virginia, contiguous to a noble stream of water. Implements of surveying were lying about, and several men idly reclining under the trees, betokened by their dress and appearance that they composed a party engaged in laying out the wild land of the then frontier of the Old Dominion. These persons had apparently just finished their noontide meal, for the relics of the repast were scattered around.

Apart from the group walked a young man, evidently superior to his companions, though

A

there was nothing obtrusive in his air, which on the contrary was distinguished by affability. certain dignity of aspect, however, accompanied him. Added to this, he was of a tall and compact frame, and moved with the elastic tread of one accustomed to constant exercise in the open air. His countenance could not be said to be handsome, but it wore a look of decision and manliness not usually found in one so youngfor apparently he was little over eighteen years. Suddenly, there was a shriek, then another, then several in rapid succession. The voice was

that of a woman, and seemed to proceed from the other side of a dense thicket. At the first scream the youth turned his head in the direction from whence the sound proceeded, but when it was repeated, he pushed aside the undergrowth which separated him from it, and quickening his footsteps, he soon dashed into an open space or "clearing," and saw his companions crowded together on the banks of the river, while in their midst a woman, from whom proceeded the shrieks, was visible, held back by two of the most athletic of the men, but still struggling to get free. The moment her eyes fell on him she exclaimed, "Oh, sir, make them release mee--for the love of

God! My boy-my poor boy, is drowning, and they will not let me go!"

"It would be madness-she would jump into the river," said one of those who held her, as the frantic mother strove again to break from his grasp. "The rapids would dash her to pieces." The youth had scarcely waited for these words. -His eye took in, at a single glance, the meaning of the sad scene. He recollected the child of the woman, a bold little fellow of four years, whose handsome blue eyes and flaxen ringlets had made him a favourite with the strangers, and filled his mother's heart with pride whenever she gazed on him. He had been accustomed to play, at will, in the little enclosure before the cabin; but this morning the gate had accidentally been left open, and he had stolen out when his mother's back was turned-reached the edge of the bank and was in the act of looking over, when his parent's eye caught sight of him. The shriek she uttered precipitated the catastrophe she feared; for the child, frightened at the cry, lost its balance, and fell headlong into the stream, which here went foaming and roaring along over innumerable rocks, constituting the most dangerous rapids known in that part of the country. Scream now followed scream in rapid succession, as the agonized parent rushed to the bank. Fortunate it was that others were so near, else the mother would have plunged in after

her child, and both would have been lost. Several of the men approached the brink, and were on the point of springing in after the child, when the sight of the sharp rocks crowding in the channel, the rush and whirl of the water, and the want of any knowledge where to look for the boy, deterred them.

Not so with the youth we have introduced. Throwing off his coat, he stood for a second running his eye rapidly over the different currents and most dangerous of the rocks, in order to shape his course by them when in the stream. He had scarcely formed his conclusions, when his gaze rested on a white object in the water, that he knew at once to be the boy's dress, and while his companions aghast at his temerity, were prevented from interfering, he plunged into the wild and roaring rapids.

"Thank God-he will save my child," gasped the woman," see-there he his―0, my boy, my darling boy, how could I leave you!"

Every one had rushed to the brink of the precipitous river, and was now following, with eager eyes, the perilous progress of the youth, as the current bore him onward. Now it seemed as if he would be dashed against a jutting rock over which the water flew in foam; and now a whirl