In one of these placid bays a party of school-boys were amusing themselves with getting upon the loose blocks and pushing them about like boats.  The amusement appeared to be unattended with danger, the place being so far from the current, and the water but two or three feet deep.  The children, therefore, were but little noticed, especially as they were at quite a distance from where the multitude of spectators was assembled, being considerably higher up and near the flat-land, bearing the undignified name which only historical accuracy compels us to introduce.  After a time a cake, on which one of the boys was standing, began slowly to slip away from the shore.  So gradually was this done that it was unobserved by the boys themselves until it had quite separated itself from the neighborhood of the other cakes, so that no assistance could be rendered, when one of his companions cried out to the little fellow upon it, to push for the shore.  This he had already been attempting to do, but in spite of all exertions he was unable to come nearer.  On the contrary, it was evident he was receding.  The water had now become so deep that his pole could no longer reach the bottom.  The current had drawn in the cake, and was sweeping it with its precious freight to destruction.  The children set up a cry of alarm, which was heard by the spectators below, and first attracted their attention.

A thrill of horror ran through the crowd.  Men drew in their breath hard, and women shrieked, unable to turn away their eyes, fastened by a terrible fascination on the peril.  Horrid apprehensions invaded the mind of many a parent.  The doomed boy might be his own son.  Despairing glances were cast around in every direction for help.  In vain:  none could be given.  There was time for nothing:  with every second the child was swept more rapidly to destruction.

Meanwhile the brave little fellow, planted firmly on the centre of the cake, was balancing himself with the pole, and intrepidly confronting the danger he could not avoid.  Not a cry escaped, nor did his self-possession desert him.  As the vexed and whirling water raised up the one side or the other of his frail bark, he would incline his body in this or that direction to preserve the equilibrium, now standing upright and now cowering close to the surface of the uncertain footing.  And now the block approached the throat, where the torrent ran the swiftest and was most turbulent.  The child seemed to have escaped thus far by miracle, but now it appeared impossible he would be able to maintain his place.  His head must become dizzy, his courage fail in the awful confusion of so many threatening dangers; the tormented waves must upset the block, or another must strike against it and cast the boy into the water.  And now the cake has reached the icy barrier stretched across the stream.  It strikes; it is sucked in below and disappears.