Reuben
must have been lying here for hours! Odd, too, that the horse has not
moved from the place."
Robert then attempted to lead me forward. I made a step, but almost fell
again.
"Halloo! he's bad in his foot as well as his knees. Look here--his hoof
is cut all to pieces; he might well come down, poor fellow! I tell you
what, Ned, I'm afraid it hasn't been all right with Reuben. Just think
of his riding a horse over these stones without a shoe! Why, if he had
been in his right senses he would just as soon have tried to ride him
over the moon. I'm afraid it has been the old thing over again. Poor
Susan! she looked awfully pale when she came to my house to ask if
he had not come home. She made believe she was not a bit anxious, and
talked of a lot of things that might have kept him. But for all that she
begged me to go and meet him. But what must we do? There's the horse to
get home as well as the body, and that will be no easy matter."
Then followed a conversation between them, till it was agreed that
Robert, as the groom, should lead me, and that Ned must take the body.
It was a hard job to get it into the dog-cart, for there was no one to
hold Ginger; but she knew as well as I did what was going on, and stood
as still as a stone.
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