The ninth day before Christmas

There was cold weather all through Christmas vacation.... Teddy Watson hung around the upper end of the pond where the brook flowed in, seeing how far he could go on the thin ice before he fell through. When he found that out he climbed out of the water and went home. It was only up to his knees, so it wasn't very exciting, but there was a lot of mud, and that made it more interesting.

From The Trouble with Jenny's Ear, by Oliver Butterworth