sank into the soft ground. But, after they had climbed the fence, they
came to a little graveled walk that was drier.

"Bet you I can throw a stone farther than any of you," said Carleton
Marsh.

"Bet you can't!" retorted Perry Phelps.

Then every one had to toss a stone into the brook. The water went so
fast it was hard to tell whose stone went farthest, for none landed
across the brook. Still, in a way this was satisfactory, for each boy
was sure that his stone had won.

"Well, come on, if you're going to explore," said Nelson Baker. "What
are you staring at, Sunny Boy?"

"Ice," said Sunny Boy, pointing up the stream. "Isn't that ice all
over everything?"

The boys looked. A little distance away the ground seemed to be
covered with cakes of ice.

"Hurry up!" shouted Perry. "It's an ice field. We can have heaps of
fun playing."

The others hurried after Perry, and when they came to the field where
the ice was they found that the brook was almost a river at this point.
It had cut a wide, new gash in the bank and had overflowed, leaving mud
and water and ice in great quantities and cutting the trunks of little
trees that stood in the way. The boys scrambled up on the ice and