He was choking and swaying with laughter. "I'm giving her something to do besides attending divine service and bullying her daughter-in-law. She'll have to stay at home and cook. Hippolyta Prymmer, you'll find me most as hard as your other master, the devil," and, trying to suppress his hilarious amusement, he entered the hotel, where he presently had a door full of waiters gazing at him over each others' shoulders in astonishment at the celerity with which he cleared one dish after another of those set before him. Justin, meanwhile, was having another kind of experience. The big brick building to which he turned his steps was down by the river bank. All through the town the river was bordered by a massive stone wall, upon which many of the principal stores and offices were founded. From the windows of the cashier's room one looked directly on the river, and into this room Justin had entered upon arriving at the scene of his daily occupation. He was standing engaged in conversation with his assistant when a sudden shriek outside caused them both to hurry to the window. A child had fallen from a house near by on one of the large cakes of ice whirling about the narrow channel. Her position was dangerous, for she was too small to understand the directions shouted to her to throw herself flat on her face and cling to the ice until an attempt could be made to rescue her. Instead of heeding the warning voices, she extended her little arms toward her agonised mother, while her pitiful cries caused tears to spring to the eyes of every one who saw her. The ice-cake on which she sustained her precarious footing swung under the bank window. Justin looked down at the light head so strangely like Derrice's, then, without a word, he lowered himself cautiously, and dropped in the clear streak of water next the wall. Making a few strokes he succeeded in catching hold of the mass of ice and in inducing the small child to sit down. Lower down, men with poles and ropes were waiting. The danger to the child was not as great as that to himself, for he feared to draw himself up on the raft of ice lest his weight should too much depress it and disturb the little one now crouching on it. Carefully he tried to guide it toward the rescuers, keeping meanwhile a watchful eye on other swinging, pursuing blocks behind. One, however, was too persistent for him. He tried to allow it to pass, to crowd himself against the stone wall, but it turned a ragged edge, and he received a blow on the temple. Dizzy, fainting, and with eyes full of blood, he felt himself sinking down into the river, away from light and hope, and all things pleasant and attractive. When he came to himself he found that he was lying on his own bed, and his mother and Captain White were bending over him. Both their faces were drawn with anxiety, but they grew relieved at his feeble smile. "He's come to," said Captain White, gleefully.