Maud Florence Nellie; or, Don't care!Coleridge, Christabel R. (Christabel Rose)
General
Maud Florence Nellie; or, Don't care!
Coleridge, Christabel R. (Christabel Rose)
Girls -- Juvenile fiction
Wyn hurried off without more words to get the trap up for his mother,
and it was not till he had deposited her safely with Florence at
Ravenshurst, and was waiting for his sister's train at the distant
junction, that it suddenly flashed into his mind how much he and
Florence had done to set the keepers on the track of the strangers whom
they had met in the wood. What had he done? It was worse than losing
the letter. Suppose they caught Mr Alwyn or Harry, whom he had himself
taken for a suspicious character, and took them up to the squire or to
his father, saying that they had been warned by Wyn Warren. What would
Mr Alwyn and Mr Edgar think of him? He must go and put them off it
somehow. Would the train never come? What possessed it to be so late?
And when it did come groaning into the station what a time Bessie was
before she appeared with her box behind her, well-dressed, smiling, and
dignified, the sister Bessie that he was ordinarily so glad to see.
Now he could think of nothing but getting home quick, and started off at
a rattling pace before Bessie had had time to remark on his growth or
inquire for mother.
"You ought not to drive that young horse so fast downhill, Wyn," said
Bessie presently; "the road's so bad, you'll have him down. Isn't it
the one father says isn't sure-footed?"
"All right, I understand him," said Wyn; but as he spoke there was a
stumble and a lurch, the horse fell, the trap tilted over, and Bessie
Warren, frightened, shaken, but otherwise unhurt, rolled out on to the
high bank beside the road.
She knew quite well enough what she was about to slip down the bank to
the horse's head and seize the rein as the beast righted himself with a
great struggle; then floundered, and stood up with broken knees,
dragging the trap, which had been turned right over, and scattering on
the bank all its contents, Wyn included.
"Wyn, Wynny darling, are you hurt?" cried Bessie, seeing little at the
first moment but her brother's heels.
It was a lonely road, and great was her relief when a gentleman on
horseback trotted up, and exclaiming, "Hullo! what's the matter?"
dismounted hastily, and displayed the features of Mr Cunningham
himself.
"Oh, sir," said Bessie as he took the reins from her hand, "there's been
an accident."
"So I perceive," said Mr Cunningham. "What, Wyn, my lad, let the young
horse down, have you? Are you damaged too?" as Wyn struggled up on to
his feet, looked at the horse's knees, and burst into a roar of crying,
while his nose began to bleed violently from the shake and the blow, and
he would have fallen back again if Bessie had not caught him, and,
sitting on the bank, laid him down with his head on her lap, and tried
to stop the bleeding.
"Is he hurt?" said the squire.
"Not much, sir, I think; he'll come round directly. Keep quiet, Wyn.
Where's your pocket-handkerchief? On the bank? Oh, sir, thank you," as
Mr Cunningham handed it to her, and saw the letter beside it with his
son's name on it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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