Chapter 17 - Page 2

appeared to have returned, "and we may yet hope to escape. I can
anticipate the joy we shall bring to your father's heart, when he again
takes you to his arms, safe and uninjured."

"Dear, _dear_ father!--What agony he must now be suffering on my
account.--Come, Corny, let us go to him at once, if it be possible."

As this was said, the precious girl arose, and adjusted her tippet in a
way that should cause her no encumbrance; like one ready to set about
the execution of a serious task with all her energies. The muff had been
dropped on the river; for neither of us had any sensibility to cold. The
night, however, was quite mild, for the season; and we probably should not
have suffered, had our exertions been less violent. Anneke declared herself
ready to proceed, and I commenced the difficult and delicate task of aiding
her across an island composed of icy fragments, in order to reach its
western margin. We were quite thirty feet in the air; and a fall into any
of the numerous caverns, among which we had to proceed, might have been
fatal; certainly would have crippled the sufferer. Then the surface of
the ice was so smooth as to render walking on it an exceedingly delicate
operation; more especially as the cakes lay at all manner of inclinations
to the plane of the horizon. Fortunately, I wore buckskin moccasins over my
boots; and their rough leather aided me greatly in maintaining my footing.
Anneke, too, had socks of cloth; without which, I do not think, she could
have possibly moved. By these aids, however, and by proceeding with the
utmost caution, we had actually succeeded in attaining our object, when the
floating mass shot into an eddy, and, turning slowly round, under this new
influence, placed us on the outer side of the island again! Not a murmur
escaped Anneke, at this disappointment; but, with a sweetness of temper
that spoke volumes in favour of her natural disposition, and a resignation
that told her training, she professed a readiness to renew her efforts.
To this I would not consent, however; for I saw that the eddy was still
whirling us about; and I thought it best to escape from its influence
altogether, before we threw away our strength fruitlessly. Instead of
re-crossing the pile, therefore, I told my fair companion that we would
descend to a cake that lay level on the water, and which projected from the
mass to such a distance, as to be close to the shore, should we again get
near it. This descent was made, after some trouble, though I was compelled
to receive Anneke entirely into my arms, in order to effect it. Effect it I
did; placing the sweet girl safely at my side, on the outermost and lowest
of all the cakes in our confused pile.

In some respects this change was for