5

THE CABIN IN THE WOODS

Gilbert instantly skated to the bank. He grabbed a large stick, then skated back toward the middle of the pond with the large crack running through it, where Bruno had fallen in.

When he was about five feet from the crack, he thrust himself on his stomach, then reached his arms out with the stick.

"Gilbert, he's fallen under!" Alice screamed. She rushed forward, without hesitation, despite Gilbert calling to warn her to stay back.

Marie-Grace grabbed Alice's arm, her heart pounding.

Alice screamed as Bruno didn't reappear, and then began crying.

Suddenly Bruno's arm shot up out of the icy water, and he tried to grab the edge of the frozen pond.

"Bruno, grab the stick!" Gilbert urged him, shouting.

But Bruno's hand slipped from the frozen edge of the pond, and he disappeared back underwater.

Alice was sobbing now. She clung to Marie-Grace, and Marie-Grace stared in horror at the pond, which her cousin was trapped underneath.

Marie-Grace waited, and didn't realize she had been holding her breath. She quickly gulped fresh air, then thought, How can Bruno hold his breath so long?

When Bruno appeared a third time, Gilbert thrust the stick at him. Bruno grabbed it with both his hands.

Gilbert pulled him out, slowly, as the girls watched from the bank.

When Bruno was safely out of the water, both girls cried out in relief.

Then Bruno slipped and fell on the ice, and slid back into the water.

"No!" Gilbert shouted, and jumped forward. The ice cracked under his weight, and in a second, he was gone.

Only a rippled remained where the two boys had been.

The girls were crying, and preparing to rush forward, when Gilbert and Bruno's heads appeared, gasping for breath. Gilbert grabbed hold of some ice on the pond, but his fingers were slipping, and he had to hold onto his younger brother.

This time both girls didn't hesitate when they leaped forward onto the ice and slipped on their shoes to the middle of the pond, where they laid on their stomachs and grabbed the stick, then thrust it at Gilbert.

Gilbert grabbed the stick and the girls heaved to pull him and Bruno out of the water. Marie-Grace was so scared, the stick felt like pulling a horse.

But finally Gilbert and Bruno were both safely out of the water.

"W-w-we have to get him d-d-dry!" Gilbert told Marie-Grace and Alice, still holding onto the back of Bruno's shirt. Gilbert needed to get dry, too. His teeth were chattering.

They hurried back through the woods and into Uncle Pierre's house. All the adults were at Aunt Lissie's house, so Uncle Pierre's cabin was vacant.

The boys wasted no time in getting to the bathroom. Marie-Grace and Alice sat on chairs by the fireplace, drying their eyes.

Marie-Grace heard hot water being poured into a tub, and in about ten minutes the boys came into the room, dry, and in clean clothes.

"How are we going to tell Papa?" Gilbert muttered.

Bruno looked gratefully at the girls. "Thank you for saving me. I'm sure I wouldn't have gotten out of the water if it weren't for you, after Gilbert jumped into the water."

Alice sniffed, and then rushed forward to hug her cousin. Marie-Grace did the same.

"Come on, we have to tell Papa," Gilbert told Bruno in a low voice.

All four of them walked to Aunt Lissie's house. The adults looked up as they entered through the door.

Aunt Odette narrowed her eyes, and asked the boys, "Why are you wearing different clothes?"

"And back so soon from the pond?" Uncle Alex teased, his brown eyes twinkling.

"Papa," Gilbert said, slowly, scuffing his shoe on the wood floor, "Bruno and I skated on the pond, and the ice cracked."

Aunt Odette gasped.

"Bruno fell through," Gilbert continued. He quickly added, "But I jumped in and grabbed him, and the girls pulled us out with a stick."

It was quiet in the room.

Uncle Alex suddenly asked, in a worried voice, "Are both of you all right?"

"We're fine, Papa," Bruno assured him.

Uncle Alex shook his head. "If the girls hadn't been there, where would you boys be?"

"At the bottom of the pond, frozen, by now," Aunt Odette said, her voice trembling.

"I'm sorry, Papa," Gilbert said softly, lowering his head. "I'm sorry, Maman."

Bruno offered his apologies, and Marie-Grace felt tears coming to her eyes, thinking what might have happened to the boys if she and Alice hadn't been there to pull them out. And what if the girls hadn't been able to pull the boys out? Marie-Grace shivered. Also, she wondered if they would be punished, and what the punishment might be.

"I think the boys have had enough excitement for one day," Aunt Odette said, gently touching her husband's arm.

Uncle Alex told the boys in a firm voice, "I never intended to punish you. I just wish you would be more careful. I had trusted you, Gilbert, but now I'm disappointed. You should have known to test the ice first before skating on it." He sighed. "I'm only glad you're both safe."

Just then Marc came into the room. "The horse wants to run!" he cried out in French. Marie-Grace knew he meant the beautiful chestnut mare that she had seen in the barn.

"I will ride him to exercise him," Gilbert assured his brother, tousling Marc's hair.

"Let's go," Alice whispered. She headed out the door.

Marie-Grace followed her cousin as Alice walked slowly away from the house, heading farther into the woods, until Marie-Grace could no longer see the edge of town peeking out from the trees.

"Where are we going?" she asked.

Alice took a deep breath. "I thought you might like to see Mrs. Davis's cabin that she used to live in with her husband, before he died."

Marie-Grace remembered the ghost stories about Mr. Davis, and inwardly shivered. Then she saw that Alice was smiling. She realized her cousin was teasing, trying to make her scared.

"Is it far from here?" Marie-Grace asked, determined to visit the cabin, so that Alice wouldn't think she was frightened.

"No," Alice said. She shook her head. "It's only about a half a mile from our house, and we've walked a long way already."

Soon, a wood cabin, like Marie-Grace's aunts' and uncles' houses, came into view.

It was a pretty cabin among the trees—but it looked abandoned, as if someone hadn't stepped through the door in years. And Marie-Grace realized that was just what it was, for Alice acted as though Mrs. Davis had been a widow a long time, and hadn't lived in the cabin for years.

There were cobwebs all over the porch and a rocking chair, which sat on the wood deck, rickety-looking from long hours in the sun and rain.

"It's lovely," Marie-Grace said aloud.

"Oui," Alice agreed. "But Mrs. Davis was so sad after her husband died that she couldn't bear continuing living in the house with memories of him all around."

"Why didn't anyone buy it?" Marie-Grace asked.

"Mrs. Davis never offered to sell it." Alice shrugged. She added, quietly, under her breath, "No one would want to, anyway."

"Do you mean the ghost stories?" Marie-Grace asked boldly, determined not to be frightened.

Alice nodded, a little sheepishly. She whispered, "But some people really claim to see a ghost in the woods. I've never seen a ghost, or a light inside the house, but Miss Marshal, at the bakery, said that once she was going on a walk through the woods, and she saw a light in the house. It was dim, but she saw it!"

Marie-Grace felt a chill go down her spine, and she glanced at the house, wondering if someone was watching her through the dirty windows, which she couldn't see in.

The girls were standing a few yards from the house. "Do you want to go in?" Alice asked, grinning.

"No thank you," Marie-Grace replied, in her calmest voice. "It looks dirty inside."

"It is," Alice told her matter-of-factly.

Marie-Grace gasped. "You've been inside?" she demanded.

"Yes," Alice said. "I went inside the house with Gilbert a few years ago. It was dirty, and all the furniture had dust on it. The house looked as if someone had left suddenly and it has been like that ever since—which it has. There are still curtains in the windows, and even a bed, with blankets on it, and a pillow."

Marie-Grace imagined the dirty, stone-silent house. She never wanted to enter it.

"Let's go," she urged. "It's getting cold outside anyway."

"All right," Alice agreed, rubbing her arms through her sweater. "We'll go back."

They turned, and Alice told Marie-Grace, "Tomorrow I'll show you the rest of the town. You only saw the bakery, the jewelry shop, and the bank—but we didn't go inside that. And you only met Miss Marshal, Mrs. Davis, and Mr. Gregory—and you saw Mayor Potts from a distance."

"And I met Betsy Anna Rogers," Marie-Grace reminded her.

"But I didn't introduce you two," Alice argued.

"You were the one who said we had to rush back home," Marie-Grace reminded her again.

Alice sighed. "Let's go home," she said. She skipped ahead, keeping to the worn path beneath the girls' feet.

The cabin was now a long distance away, but Marie-Grace glanced back.

And, through the dirty, dust-streaked window, Marie-Grace thought she could see a dim glimmer of light.