He stopped awhile and listened; and,
in answer to some inquiries which he made about the matter, one of the
lads, a fine, frank, manly boy, whose heart was in the right place, though
his love of sport sometimes led him astray, volunteered to give a narrative
of their trip and its various incidents. As he drew near the end of his
story, he exclaimed:--
"O, sir, there was one little circumstance which I almost forgot to tell
you! Toward the latter part of the afternoon, as we were coming home, we
saw, at some distance ahead of us, a queer-looking affair in the road. We
could not exactly make out what it was. It seemed to be a sort of
half-and-half monstrosity. As we approached it, it proved to be a rusty old
sleigh fastened behind a covered wagon, proceeding at a very slow rate, and
taking up the whole road. Finding that the owner was disposed not to turn
out, we determined upon a volley of snowballs and a good hurrah. These we
gave with a relish, and they produced the right effect, and a little more;
for the crazy machine turned out into the deep snow by the side of the
road, and the skinny old pony started on a full trot.
Pages:
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131