The Twenty-Fourth of June: Midsummer's DayRichmond, Grace S. (Grace Smith)
General
The Twenty-Fourth of June: Midsummer's Day
Richmond, Grace S. (Grace Smith)
Children of the rich -- Fiction; Love stories; Young women -- Fiction
"Rob adores horses," Ruth remarked, looking after her sister also. "You
ought to see her ride cross-country. My Bess can't jump, but her Colonel
can. I don't believe there's anything in sight Rob and Colonel couldn't
jump. But I can never get used to seeing her; I have to shut my eyes
when Colonel rises, and I don't open them till I hear him land. But he's
never fallen with her, and she says he never will."
"He won't."
"Why not? Any horse might, you know, if he slipped on wet ground or
something."
"He never will with her on his back. He's more likely to jump so high
he'll never come down."
Ruth laughed. "Look at Colonel rub his nose against her, now he's had
the sandwich. Don't you wish you had a picture of them?"
"Indeed I do!" The tone was fervent. Then a thought struck him and he
jumped to his feet. "By all luck, I believe there's a little camera in
the car. If there is we'll have it."
He ran to the fence, took a flying leap over, and fell to searching. In
a moment he produced something which he waved at Ruth. She and Ted went
to meet him as he returned. Roberta, busy with the horses, had not seen.
"There are only two exposures left on the film, but they'll do, if
she'll be good. Will she mind if I snap her, or must I ask her
permission?"
"I think you'd better ask it," counselled Ruth doubtfully. "If it were
one of us she wouldn't mind--"
"I see." He set the little instrument with a skilled touch and rapidly,
then walked toward Roberta and the horses. He aimed it with care, then
he called: "You won't mind if I take a picture of the horses, will you?"
Roberta turned quickly, her hand on Colonel's snuggling nose. "Not at
all," she answered, and took a quick step to one side. But before she
had taken it the sharp-eyed little lens of the camera had caught her,
her attitude at the instant one of action, the expression of her face
that of vivacious response. She flew out of range and before she could
speak the camera clicked again, this time the lens so obviously pointed
at the animals, and not at herself, that the intent of the operator
could not be called in question.
She looked at him with indignant suspicion, but his glance in return was
innocent, though his eyes sparkled.
"They'll make the prettiest kind of a picture, won't they?" he observed,
sliding the small black box back into its case. "I wish I had another
film; I'd take a lot of pictures about this place. I mean always to be
loaded, but November isn't usually the time for photographs, and I'd
forgotten all about it."
"If you find you have a picture of me on one of those shots I can trust
you not to keep it?"
"I may have caught you on that first shot. I'll bring it to you to see.
If your hat is tilted too much or you don't like your own expression--"
"I shall not like it, whatever it is. You stole it. That wasn't
fair--and when you had just been treated to sandwiches and ginger ale!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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