“Will you walk with me?” he asked.  But I refused.  I thought I would rather watch the others; and accordingly, after I had followed the school-master with my eyes as he strode off at a pace that promised soon to bring him back, I put my hands into my pockets and joined the groups of watchers on the bank.  I suppose if I had thought about it, I might have observed that though I was dawdling about, my nose and ears and fingers were not nipped.  Mr. Wood was right,—­it had not been freezing for hours past.

The first thing I looked for was the heavy man.  He was so clumsy-looking that I quite expected him to fall when he walked off on to ice only fit for skaters.  But as I looked closer I saw that the wet on the top was beginning to have a curdled look, and that the glassiness of the mill-dam was much diminished.  The heavy man’s heavy boots got good foothold, and several of his friends, seeing this, went after him.  And my promise weighed sorely on me.

The next thing that drew my attention was a lad of about seventeen, who was skating really well.  Indeed, everybody was looking at him, for he was the only one of the villagers who could perform in any but the clumsiest fashion, and, with an active interest that hovered between jeering and applause, his neighbours followed him up and down the dam.  As I might not go on, I wandered up and down the bank too, and occasionally joined in a murmured cheer when he deftly evaded some intentional blunderer, or cut a figure at the request of his particular friends.  I got tired at last, and went down to the pond, where I ploughed about for a time on my skates in solitude, for the pond was empty.  Then I ran up to the house to see if Jem had come back, but he had not, and I returned to the dam to wait for the school-master.

The crowd was larger than before, for everybody’s work-hours were over; and the skater was still displaying himself.  He was doing very difficult figures now, and I ran round to where the bank was covered with people watching him.  In the minute that followed I remember three things with curious distinctness.  First, that I saw Mr. Wood coming back, only one field off, and beckoned to him to be quick, because the lad was beginning to cut a double three backwards, and I wanted the school-master to see it.  Secondly, that the sight of him seemed suddenly to bring to my mind that we were all on the far side of the dam, the side he thought dangerous.  And thirdly, that, quickly as my eyes passed from Mr. Wood to the skater, I caught sight of a bloated-looking young man, whom we all knew as a sort of typical “bad lot,” standing with another man who was a great better, and from a movement between them, it just flashed through my head that they were betting as to whether the lad would cut the double three backwards or not.

He cut one—­two—­and then he turned too quickly and his skate caught in the softening ice, and when he came headlong, his head struck, and where it struck it went through.  It looked so horrible that it was a relief to see him begin to struggle; but the weakened ice broke around him with every effort, and he went down.