CHAPTER XII
A LONG RIDE
"I wish we had brought Hero," thought Ruth regretfully as she hurrieddown the shadowy road, "then he could have come with me for company."For at the last moment before leaving home the little girls had decidedthat it was not best to let Hero accompany them. There was not room forhim in the pony-cart, and for him to race along the streets might wellmean that he would again disappear; so Ruth had been quite ready toleave him at home. But now she would have been very glad to have himrunning along beside her. "Josephine" and "Cecilia" had also been leftbehind; in fact neither Winifred nor Ruth had remembered the dolls untilafter they had said good-bye to Aunt Deborah. And, while Ruth wasregretting the absence of Hero, Winifred, sitting close beside Fluff,was wishing that her beloved Josephine was there to keep her company.
"It would be a great adventure for Josephine," she thought, looking upthrough the overhanging branches of the big oak under which Fluff hadstopped to rest. For a time she amused herself by braiding the longgrass and weaving it about green twigs broken from an elder-bush untilshe had made a wide, shallow basket with a handle. Into this she put theviolets and wild honeysuckle, resolving to take it home as a present toher mother. She put it carefully under the seat of the pony-cart, andthen decided to search for a spring or brook, for she was thirsty.
Fluff showed no signs of wishing to start for home, or even to eat thetempting young grass growing near.
"If I find a brook perhaps I can lead him, and then he will get a gooddrink," thought Winifred, crossing the narrow road and pushing aside athick growth of wild shrubs.
"Oh!" she exclaimed, for she had stepped at once on to damp yieldingmoss which covered her low cut slippers and whetted her feet ascompletely as if she had stepped into a brook. Just beyond this moss laya clear little pool of water, evidently fed by springs.
Winifred discovered that the farther, or upper, bank of the pool was dryand sandy, and in a few moments she was kneeling beside the clear waterand drinking thirstily. She then made her way back to the road, breakingdown branches of the shrubs to make a way for Fluff, who was now on hisfeet looking about as if in search of his little mistress.
"Come on, Fluff," she said coaxingly, grasping the plume-like mane."Come and have a drink." The pony moved forward obediently. He hesitateda moment at having to push his way through the undergrowth, but withWinifred encouraging and urging him forward he was soon in sight of thepool, and then sprang forward so suddenly that his mane slid throughWinifred's hands and she found herself on her hands and knees whileFluff, with his nose in the clear water, was drinking thirstily.
Winifred laughed as she scrambled to her feet. Her shoes and stockingswere wet and muddy, her pretty blue linen dress was torn, and now sherealized that her hat was gone, that she must have lost it in pushingher way through the undergrowth; but these things seemed of smallconsequence to Winifred just then; for the pony, with his forefeetplanted firmly in the shallow water, was evidently more himself than hehad been since he had stopped short under the oak tree.
"I'll lead him back and harness him into the cart and start after Ruth,"thought his little mistress happily, "and I do believe it is gettingdark!" she added aloud, realizing that the woods seemed very shadowy, asshe made her way toward the pool.
As she came near Fluff he lifted his head from the water, shook himselfmuch as a big dog would do, and whinnied with satisfaction. But asWinifred approached more closely he gave a little dancing step into thewater just beyond her reach.
"Oh, Fluff! It isn't any time to play games. We must start for homebefore it is really dark," said Winifred. But Fluff was now rested, andfree from his harness in a fragrant shadowy wood. He was sure that hislittle mistress must be as ready as himself for a game, so he edgedalong the pool until a clear space opened before him, and then hestepped out, and trotted briskly away between the tall trees.
"Fluff! Fluff!" called Winifred, running after him. "Oh! where did hego?" for the pony had disappeared as if the earth had swallowed him.Winifred ran on until her way was blocked by thickly growing underbrush.Then she turned back, but now she could not find the pool. The shadowsdeepened; she could hardly distinguish one tree from another, and therewas no sound or sign from the gray pony.
"What shall I do?" she said, standing close to the trunk of a pine treethat rose straight and tall with wide-spreading branches. She realizedthat she must now be some distance from the road and the big oak treewhere she had left the pony-cart, and Fluff perhaps was deep in thiswilderness, unable to make his way back; and, worst of all, night wasclose upon her.
It was indeed a dangerous position for a little girl to be alone in awilderness as Winifred found herself. It was a time when many wildbeasts still wandered about, often coming near to the outskirts of townsand villages. Winifred remembered that only a few weeks earlier acatamount had been killed at Fair Mount, and she knew that in the earlyspring bears left the dens where they had slept through the winter, andwandered through the woods eating the tender young buds and leaves. Shecrouched closer to the tree as she remembered these things, and thensuddenly she recalled the words that she had worked on her sampler:"There shall no evil befall thee. For he shall give his angels chargeover thee, to keep thee in all thy ways."
Her mother had traced the words, and Winifred had worked them in dullblue yarns on the perforated wool cloth. She said them over aloud: "Noevil befall thee," and was no longer afraid. She did not think now ofthe beasts of the dark wood, but of a kindly presence that would shelterher.
"Perhaps Fluff will come and find me," she thought hopefully. "Anyway,Ruth will soon be back with Gilbert, and they will call my name, and Ishall call back," and so comforted and encouraged Winifred sat down onthe soft pine spills and leaned back against the tall tree. A pair ofsquirrels chattered noisily in the branches; a soft-footed little animalsped by almost touching her feet, and she could hear faint calls fromnesting birds near at hand.
"For he shall give his angels charge over thee," the little girlwhispered to herself, and soothed and quieted by the spring fragrance ofthe wood her eyes closed.
Ruth, meanwhile, was trudging along the road toward home. She was surethat she could find the way without any trouble.
"All I have to do is to turn when I come to the river road and follow itstraight back to the city, and then any one can tell me how to gethome," she thought, hopefully. But she began to think she should neverreach the river road. Her thin shoes were scrubbed and dusty, and shewondered what Aunt Deborah would say at her untidy appearance.
Now and then she would quicken her pace and run until she was out ofbreath. She began to understand why Fluff was tired out. Just before shereached the river road there was the sound of breaking twigs, and ofsome animal making its way through the woods, and the next moment a deerfollowed by a young fawn sprang into the road directly in front of thesurprised and startled little girl; but they vanished before Ruthrealized that they had been within reach of her hand.
"Oh! I wish Winifred could have seen them," she thought. The road nowhardly showed in the thick dusk. Ruth stumbled often, and began to beboth hungry and thirsty. She wished she could stop and rest; but thethought of Winifred sitting alone under the big oak tree made herresolve not to stop until she reached home.
At last she could see an open space ahead, and the dark line of theriver; and at the same moment she heard the sound of trotting feet onthe road behind her and a little gray figure ran swiftly by.
"That was Fluff! I know it was Fluff," she exclaimed, and called loudlyafter the pony. But Fluff did not stop; he knew he was headed for home,and it was much easier to run along free and unharnessed than to pull acart containing two little girls.
Ruth now hardly knew what to do. Perhaps Winifred might be comingclosely behind the pony.
"Perhaps I ought to wait and see if she is coming," thought Ruth,puzzled and uncertain as to the right course to take. Before she coulddecide she saw the gleam of a lantern, and heard the wheels of acarriage comi
ng rapidly over the road, and without a moment'shesitation she called out: "Stop! Please stop!" and heard a familiarvoice respond:
"It's Ruth. It's Ruth." And the light of the lantern showed Gilbert andhis mother in Ned Farris's pony-cart.
In a moment they were standing in the road beside her, and Ruth wastelling the story of the woodland road, and of Winifred waiting besidethe pony-cart under a big oak tree.
"And Fluff just ran by, headed for home," she concluded.
"I thought it was Fluff who raced past us. I was sure it was he," saidGilbert.
They were now puzzled what course to take. To leave Winifred alone sofar from any human habitation was not to be thought of; neither did Mrs.Merrill wish Ruth to go on toward home without some one with her.
"Gilbert, you must go home with Ruth, and I will drive on afterWinifred," she decided. "Mrs. Pernell will be sadly troubled when Fluffcomes running home and she has no news of her little girl. Go as quicklyas you can."
Gilbert agreed; but he felt a little defrauded as he and Ruth turnedtoward home. He would have enjoyed going up that dark hillside road,where it seemed to him some interesting adventure might befall atraveler.
Mrs. Merrill, with the lantern fastened to the front of the cart, droverapidly up the hill, trying to pierce the dusky shadows of the roadside.Now and then she called Winifred's name, and listened intently for someresponse, but none came.
At last the light from the lantern showed the pony-carriage in theshadow of the big oak tree, and in a moment Mrs. Merrill was on theground beside it. But Winifred was not to be seen. "Winifred!" shecalled over and over, but there was no reply.