The words were mild and motherly; but the countenance of the outraged matron had an uncompromising look of reprehension, which exasperated Fanny's wayward humor beyond measure. She began, it is true, a lively conversation on general topics with the intelligent Stubb, but, meantime, by alternately checking and exciting her horse, and urging him to play a variety of antics, she contrived to infect her companion's steed with the like contagion. He pranced, plunged, and chafed, till his rider was brought to the verge of despair. The road had become quite narrow, running through a thick forest, frequented chiefly by woodcutters in the winter, and hunters of the picturesque in summer. Fanny's imitator, the adventurous Miss Gosling, a little girl of fourteen, had ridden a few rods in advance of the rest, when suddenly they saw her returning, astonished and disconsolate. "We can't go any farther; there's a great tree fallen across the road." A severe thundergust of the night before had overthrown a hemlock, the trunk of which, partly sustained by the roots and branches, formed a barrier about four feet from the ground. It was impossible to pass through the woods on either side, as they were very dense, and choked with a tangled growth of laurel bushes. "How very annoying!" said Miss Primrose. "What shall we do?" inquired Miss Gosling. "Why, jump over it, to be sure," said Fanny. "Mr. Stubb and I will show you the way." "You are surely not in earnest!" cried Mrs. Primrose. "Of course I am. I have taken higher leaps at the riding school, twenty times." "You had better not," said Morton, who had alighted by the roadside to draw his saddle girth. "It is too dangerous to be thought of for a single moment," added Mrs. Primrose. "Our horses," pursued the indiscreet Stubb, "are not used to leaping, and some of the ladies would certainly be hurt." "The fool!" thought Morton. "He has done it now." Fanny threw a laughing, caustic glance at her victim. "_Mine_ will leap, I know; and you are not a lady. Come, Mr. Stubb." "Miss Euston," interposed the excited Mrs. Primrose, "this must not be. I am here in your mother's place, and she will hold me responsible for your safety. I forbid you to go, Miss Euston." Fanny looked for a moment in her face. Morton caught the expression. It was one of unqualified, though not ill-natured, defiance. "Come," cried Fanny again, and ran her horse towards the tree. She leaped gallantly, and cleared the barrier; but it was evident that she had lost control of the spirited animal, who galloped at a furious rate down the road. Morton was still on foot, busied with his saddle girth. "The crazy child!" exclaimed Mrs. Primrose; "her horse is running away. Go after her--pray!--Mr. Stubb--somebody." "O, quick! quick!--do," cried little Miss Gosling, who idolized Fanny, and was in an agony of fright for her.