CHAPTER VIIIDapple Gray
CHAPTER VIIIDapple Gray
Therest of the time that the boys were at home Jessie did not see much of them. She found so many things to interest her at the yellow house, that she enjoyed the novelty of it, and moreover, when she was there she was free from Walter’s teasing, so she spent most of her time with Adele, to the latter’s delight.
The afternoon of the day when the apples were taken to Ezra, the two little girls sought their playground by the brook, but Max and Walter discovered them, and as they did not want their secrets known, they quickly covered up the grotto and beat a hasty retreat across the brook. “I don’t mind Max so much,” Jessie explained, “though even he teases sometimes, but Walter is such a worry when he sets out to be, and if he knew about Playmate Polly and Peter Pan’s grotto he would be sure to do something to them just to pay me back for taking the apples. Sowe will play in your garden or the summer-house. I will take Charity and you can get one of your dolls.”
“The back porch is a good place,” returned Adele. “I am sorry your brothers aren’t nice and I am glad I haven’t any.”
“But they are nice,” returned Jessie on the defensive. “They are very nice. All boys tease and Max was lovely the other day when I wanted to go with them. He is older than Walter. I suppose that is the reason. Since Walter has been going to boarding-school he thinks himself so smart.”
The two little girls trudged up the hill toward the yellow house and as they entered the garden they heard some one calling, “Adele! Adele! where are you?”
“That’s Aunt Betty,” said Adele. “I wonder what she wants.”
“Let’s go see,” returned Jessie.
They ran around the corner of the house. Miss Betty and Miss Eloise were both on the front porch. By the steps was standing a little gray pony harnessed to a small pony cart. “Oh, dear, company, I suppose,” said Adele disgustedly.“I wish we’d stayed away. I suppose now I shall have to be kissed and called a sweet child.”
“I wonder who it is,” said Jessie more curious. “That turnout does not belong to any one around here. I know just what every one drives. Effie Hinsdale’s mother has a white horse; the minister’s wife drives a sorrel; Mrs. Traill has two black horses and——”
But she went no further for Miss Betty had seen the two children and was calling out, “Come here, dears, such a lovely surprise for you! Whose do you think that is, Adele?”
“I’m sure I don’t know. It isn’t the cousins from the city, is it, Aunt Bet?” said Adele.
“No.” Miss Betty shook her head. “It belongs to the cousin of the cousins from the city.”
Adele looked bewildered. “Who is that?”
Miss Betty laughed. “Who is your cousins’ cousin? Don’t you know?”
“Aunt Betty, you don’t mean me!” cried Adele. “It isn’t mine. It couldn’t possibly be.”
“That is exactly whose it is,” Miss Betty told her. “Your father has sent it to you for a birthday gift.”
“But my birthday is past and gone.”
“That is true. He couldn’t get what he wanted at once, so he had to wait, and so your present has just arrived.”
Adele rushed forward and clasped the pony’s neck. “Oh, you dear beautiful thing,” she cried. “I love you. Oh, Jessie, isn’t he a beauty?”
Jessie could but agree that he certainly was.
“And can I drive him myself?” asked Adele eagerly.
“When you learn how,” she was told.
“I can drive,” declared Jessie. “I often drive when I am out with mother.”
“Your father says he is very gentle,” remarked Miss Eloise to Adele.
“Then couldn’t we try him now?” begged Adele.
“Couldn’t Jessie drive him just a little way to see how he goes?”
Miss Betty looked at Miss Eloise. “Do you think it would be safe?” she said.
“Can you really drive, Jessie?” asked Miss Eloise.
“I truly can,” Jessie told her. “I often drive all the way. I can turn out for the big teamsand I can drive in through the gates as straight as anything.”
“Then you may jump in and show us what you can do,” Miss Betty consented, and the little girls were not slow in obeying.
“How far may we go?” asked Jessie taking up the reins.
“Oh, not out of sight. Just up and down the road where we can see you,” Miss Betty directed.
Jessie proudly turned the pony’s head toward the gate, drove through without accident, and soon the little pony was trotting up the road. Miss Betty and Miss Eloise came to the gate to watch. Jessie turned carefully and brought the pony back in triumph.
“Can’t she drive well?” said Adele admiringly. “She is going to teach me, and when she isn’t here to do it Otto can.” Otto was the Halletts’ man. “What shall I name him, Aunt Betty?”
“Why not call him Dapple Gray?” suggested Miss Eloise.
“Good! That will just suit him, but I shall never lend him to a lady to ride him far away. Oh, no, we don’t want to get out yet.”
“But the little pony must be tired. He has come a long distance to-day.”
That put another face upon the matter and Adele was quite willing that Jessie should give up the reins to Otto who led Dapple Gray to the stable.
“I never knew such lovely things as happen nowadays,” said Adele as she and Jessie returned to the garden. “First I met you and we had the lovely plays down by the brook, then came Eb, and now this dear Dapple Gray! Before I came here weeks and weeks used to go by and nothing at all happened. I do hope we can go driving every day by ourselves; it would be such fun.”
Within a week Adele had learned to manage her pony pretty well, and the two little girls were allowed to take a short drive each day, not going out of sight of the house, but in time Adele tired of this and was bent upon going farther. She begged and entreated till Miss Betty was on the point of yielding, and at last agreed to take a longer drive than usual in her own carriage that Adele and Jessie might follow in the pony cart. This satisfied Adele for aweek, but there came a day when Miss Betty had one of her severe headaches, and Miss Eloise was not willing to leave her, so the two little girls were told they could take their drive alone, but must not go out of sight.
They started off contentedly enough, but soon Adele became tired of the monotonous drive up and down in front of the house. “Miss Eloise is with Aunt Betty and I know she isn’t thinking about us,” she said. “We may just as well go a little further and she will never know. It is so silly to go up and down, up and down, this stupid road and nowhere else.”
“Oh, but it wouldn’t be right, whether she sees us or not,” protested Jessie.
“There isn’t a bit of harm in it,” Adele insisted. “We go every day, and just because we are not with them it doesn’t matter. I am going further whether any one likes it or not.” She gave a little jerk to the reins and Dapple Gray started off on a trot. The excitement of a faster gait stirred Adele to further desire for a rapid drive. “I am tired to death of this old road,” she declared. “I want to go somewhere new. I am going to turn up this way.”
“Oh, no, please don’t,” begged Jessie.
“You needn’t say a word,” Adele interrupted. “You haven’t a thing to do with it. This is my pony and my cart, and you have to do it to sit still. You are my company and I am taking you to drive.”
Jessie felt that this was quite true, though she knew that Adele was doing wrong. She realized that she ought to do something, but she did not know just what. If she insisted upon getting out and going home she would leave Adele all alone, and that would be worse than staying to help her out of any difficulty into which she might fall. “Perhaps I’d better drive,” she ventured after a while when Adele had recklessly driven over a big stone and had almost bumped into a stump by the way.
“No, you shall not,” returned Adele. “The only way to learn to do a thing is to keep on doing it, no matter if you do it wrong sometimes. Papa always says so.”
Jessie had nothing to reply to this, but she watched Adele carefully. They were coming to a hill. Jessie looked around earnestly. “Oh!” she exclaimed, “do be careful, Adele. We arecoming to the cut. It is at the foot of this hill. We came by the mill, I remember, and this leads by the old schoolhouse. We’d better turn and go back.”
“No, thank you,” replied Adele, “I’m going on. If you are scared you can get out and walk.”
Jessie’s feelings were deeply hurt. She wasn’t exactly scared, but she knew at the foot of the hill was the railroad cut, and though there was always some one there, if the horse took fright, or if anything happened to the cart or harness, it might mean an accident. “We have to cross the railroad,” she said after a pause.
“Well, suppose we do; other people cross it,” was the answer.
“Hold him in,” cried Jessie sharply, clutching at the reins as Dapple Gray went down the hill at a more rapid rate than she felt safe.
“Just let me alone,” cried Adele giving Dapple Gray a light touch with the whip.
“Don’t! Don’t!” cried Jessie, but Adele only laughed, and directly they were at the foot of the hill where the railroad ran. Instead of taking a clean straight course across it, Adele triedto drive diagonally. “There’s a whistle,” cried Jessie in alarm. Adele raised the whip again. Dapple Gray made a plunge forward. A wheel caught and presently Jessie was conscious that she was rolling down an embankment. Then she knew nothing for some time.
When she came to her senses, she was lying in a little gully among some bushes. She raised her head and then struggled to her feet. “No bones broken,” she said to herself, though she felt shaken and sore. She stood up and looked around. At a little distance she saw Adele sitting sobbing miserably. She ran toward her as fast as her bruises would allow. “Oh, Adele! Adele!” she cried, “are you hurt?”
“Oh! my arm, my arm,” moaned Adele. “I believe it is broken.”
“Oh, dear, dear, how dreadful,” responded Jessie. “Where is Dapple Gray?”
“I don’t know.”
Jessie climbed the bank and there saw Dapple Gray patiently standing, a broken wheel showing what had happened. The wheel had caught in the track and although both girls were thrown out as the wheel gave way the little pony hadnot bolted, but stood his ground. Jessie went up to him, and began to unfasten the harness. “It won’t do for you to stand so near the track,” she said. “You were a dear good pony not to run. The cart isn’t on the track, I am glad to say.” She led the pony down the bank to where Adele sat. “We are quite a way from home,” she said. “Shall you be afraid to stay here while I go for some one to take us back?”
“Oh, don’t leave me, don’t leave me,” Adele wept.
“If you could come up a little higher, you could watch me as I go,” said Jessie. “Ezra lives the nearest, and I am going down the track to call him.” Adele, still moaning and crying, allowed herself to be led to a higher spot. “I don’t think there will be any more trains for some time,” Jessie assured her, “and if you stay right here you can watch me going and coming. I will be as quick as I can.”
Adele suffered herself to be left and Jessie set out. Further down the railroad spanned a gully through which ran the brook. The only way to cross it was upon a narrow boardwalk on one side the bridge, this being used by the workmenas a short cut. The longer way was to go down hill and around to a foot-bridge higher up the brook. Jessie hesitated when she reached the path which led down hill. Should she go that way, or should she venture across the railroad bridge? If she did not look down and hold closely to the railing, perhaps it would not be so bad. She decided to try. So she stepped cautiously upon the planks and went on slowly, doing very well till she reached the middle, when incautiously she glanced down at the rushing water below. For one moment she felt sick and faint. Everything swam around. Then she closed her eyes and held tightly to the railing, stepping along slowly, each moment seeming an hour. In a few minutes her heart stopped its rapid beating and her head felt steady, so she opened her eyes and fixed them on the opposite bank, not once turning them from there, and at last she was safely over.
A little beyond was Ezra’s house with its smiling garden and white fence. Although she felt sore and bruised she began to run, forgetting her pain in her anxiety to reach the house. It was about Ezra’s supper time; there would be notrains coming or going at this time of day, and she would be sure to find the old man at home. So she began to call, “Ezra! Ezra!” and presently she saw his gray head over the fence.
He opened the gate and came out to meet her. “Why, little girl!” he exclaimed, “what are you doing on this road? ’Tain’t your way from home. Why, your face is cut and you’re all mussed up. Tumble down?”
“Oh, Ezra! Ezra!” cried Jessie, seizing his hand, “the pony cart upset us over the bank there by the cut, and Adele has hurt her arm. The pony is all right. He is standing just as still, but the cart-wheel is off so we can’t get home, at least I don’t know how to get Adele and the pony home.”
“Where did you say they were?” asked Ezra.
“On the other side of the gully, there by the cut.”
“You didn’t come over the railroad bridge?”
“Yes, it was the shortest way,” said Jessie simply.
Ezra uttered an exclamation. “You poor little tot, what would your mother say? Suppose you had slipped under the hand-rail and had fallen into the water?”
“I shut my eyes when I got dizzy.”
“Humph! Well, you don’t go back, that’s all. Come right in here and let my daughter straighten you out, wash off that poor little battered up face. Mark and I will go get the pony and the little girl. What do ye say her name is?”
“Adele. Adele Hallett.”
Ezra nodded. “Belongs to the yellow house. What ye been doing driving off in that direction by yourselves, is what I want to know.”
Jessie was silent. She did not like to blame Adele, though she knew it was entirely her fault. “I told Adele I’d hurry back,” she said.
“You’re not going back,” declared Ezra. “I’ll look after that young miss myself. Come right in the house. Here, Kitty,” he spoke to a young woman at the door. “Here’s Miss Loomis that brought us those good apples. She’s had an accident up the road a piece. Her and a young miss was out driving, and as far as I can make out they got catched on the railroad and a wheel came off. You tidy her up a bit while Mark and me goes after the other one.”
Jessie had often seen Ezra’s daughter as well as her husband Mark, and she was quite willingto be taken indoors to have her face bathed, the dirt brushed from her clothes and herself generally looked after. There was a tremendous bruise on her leg, one stocking was badly torn, and the side of her face was scraped and sore where she had fallen against the bank.
“It’s lucky you weren’t killed outright,” said Kitty, when by dint of much questioning she learned how the thing happened. “Pappy’ll be back in no time. You just set still and wait for him. I reckon your ma’ll be glad to see you alive when she hears what’s went on.”
She established Jessie in a chair by the window and continued her preparations for supper. In a very short time Ezra and Mark were back again with Adele in the wagon and Dapple Gray behind it. “I conclude she has broken her arm,” said Ezra to his daughter as he came into the house. “There ain’t no time to lose in getting her to the doctor to have it sot, so I think the quickest way is to drive her right to Dr. Sadtler’s and let him see what’s wrong. I ain’t said nothin’ to her about what I think.”
“Pore little thing,” said Kitty, “she looks real white.”
Jessie had flown to Adele. “I couldn’t come,” she exclaimed. “Ezra wouldn’t let me. Do you feel any better?”
“No.” Adele shook her head and her tears broke out afresh. “I want to go home, I want to go home,” she sobbed.
Ezra came out before Jessie had time for another word. “You stay here, honey,” he said to Jessie. “I’ll take this young lady to the doctor and let him fix her up so she’ll feel better and then we’ll come back for you.”
But Adele wailed out, “Go with me, Jessie. Go with me. I don’t want to see the doctor all alone.”
“Ezra will be with you,” said Jessie who was feeling rather shaky herself.
“Yes, sir, Ezra will be right with you,” said that person, “and moreover this young miss isn’t to go; she isn’t fit, all bruised up as she is. You won’t be alone, bless you, child. There ain’t a kinder woman in the country than Mrs. Sadtler, and she’ll mother you fine. You’ll be all right in no time. No, you don’t!” he stopped Jessie from climbing into the wagon. Mark had unfastened Dapple Gray and had tied him to thehitching-post. “We’ll go for the cart after a while,” said Ezra gathering up the reins. “You wait here, child, and I’ll be back as quick as I can.” So Jessie was obliged to see Adele drive off while she was left to Kitty’s tender mercies.