“This isn’t your day,” he observed as he did so, and the remark was certainly addressed to the model of the town.

He went into the other room and stood beside his father, looking down at his drawn face and damp forehead.

“Say, father, really, isn’t there anything I can do to help?”

Overholt answered with an effort.  “No, my boy, there’s nothing, thank you.  You cannot find money to pay my debts, can you?”

“Have you got no money at all?” asked Newton, very gravely.

“Four or five dollars!  That’s all!  That’s all you and I have got left in the world to live on, and even that’s not mine!”

His voice shook with agony, and he raised one hand to his forehead, not dramatically, as many foreigners would do, but quietly and firmly, and he pressed and kneaded the surface as if he were trying to push his brains back into the right place, so that they would work, or at least keep quiet.  After that answer Newton was too sensible to ask any more questions, and perhaps he was also a little afraid to, because questions might make his father worse.

“Well,” he said vaguely, “if I can’t work at the City I suppose I may as well go out before it’s dark and take a look at the pond.  It’s going to freeze hard to-night, and maybe there’ll be black ice that’ll bear by to-morrow.”

Overholt was glad to be left alone, for he could not help being ashamed of having broken down so completely before the boy, and he felt that he could not recover his self-control unless he were left to himself.

He heard Newton go up the rickety stairs to his own room, where he seemed to be rummaging about for some time, judging from the noises overhead; then the strong shoes clattered on the staircase again, the house door was opened and shut, and the boy was off.

VI

HOW A SMALL BOY DID A BIG THING AND NAILED DOWN THE LID OF THE BOX

Newton went to the pond, because he said he was going out for that purpose, and it might be convenient to be able to swear that he had really been down to the water’s edge.  As if to enjoy the pleasure of anticipation, too, he had his skates with him in a green flannel bag, though it was quite out of the question that the ice should bear already, and it was not even likely that the water would be already frozen over.  However, he took the skates with him, a very good pair, of a new model, which his father had given him towards the end of the previous winter, so that he had not used them more than half a dozen times.  It was very cold, but of course the ice would not bear yet.  The sun had not set, and as he was already half-way to the town, the boy apparently thought he might as well go on instead of returning at once to the cottage, where he would have to occupy himself with his books till supper-time, supposing that it occurred to his father to have any supper in his present condition.  The prospect was not wildly gay, and besides, something must be done at once.  Newton was possessed by that idea.