So they rode up to the chaise, and Rollo put the question to his uncle George.
His reply was that he could not say any thing about it; Rollo must go and ask his father.
"Would you go?" said Jonas.
"Yes," said Rollo.
"Well, touch up Old Trumpeter then."
So Rollo applied his switch, and the horse trotted on fast. Rollo had hard work to hold on, but he clasped his arm tight around Jonas's waist, and succeeded in keeping his seat.
Rollo's father and mother were riding some distance before them, but they saw Jonas coming up, and rode slowly, that he might overtake them.
"Well, Rollo," said his father, "how do you like riding double?"
"Very much," said Rollo; "and we want you to let Jonas and I cut across by the horse-path through the valley, and wait for you at the mill."
"Is there a horse-path across here, Jonas?"
"Yes, sir," said Jonas.
"Is it a good path?"
"It is rather rough, sir, through the woods and bushes; but it is a pretty good road."
Rollo's father sat hesitating a moment, and then said-
"You may go, if you choose, but I advise you not to."
"Why do you advise us not to?" said Rollo.
"Why, you may get into some difficulty, and so we get separated."
"Yes, but," said Rollo, "it is not near so far across, and we shall have time to get through to the mill long before you come along."
"Very well, you may do as you please."
"Jonas, what would you do? Would you go, or not?"
"I think I would not go, if your father thinks we had better not."
"I want to go very much," said Rollo.
"Very well," said his father; "you are willing to go with him, I suppose, Jonas, are you not?"
"O yes, sir," said Jonas.
"Well," said Rollo, "let us go. We will he very careful, father, not to get into any difficulty."
So the two chaises rode on, and Jonas and Rollo, in a few minutes, turned off by a narrow path that struck into the woods. Just as they were bending down their heads to pass under a great branch of a tree, Rollo looked along, and saw Lucy waving her handkerchief to him, as the chaise which she was in disappeared by a turn of the road.
Rollo at first felt a little uneasy to think that he had deserted his cousin, as it were. He thought that he should not have liked it exactly, if she had gone off, and left him alone so in the chaise. However, it was now too late to repent, and his attention was attracted by the wild and romantic scene around him. The path descended obliquely, by a rough, wet, and stony way, through a dark forest. He heard the sighing of the wind, in the tops of the tall trees, and the mellow notes of forest birds, far off, and high, which came rich and sweet to his ear with a peculiar expression of solitude and loneliness.
The boys rode on, and the path became more and more slippery, stony, and steep Rollo clung tight to Jonas, and begun to be somewhat afraid. He would have proposed to go back, but he was ashamed to do it. After a little time, he asked Jonas whether the path was as bad as that all the way.
"As bad as this!" said Jonas; "we call this very good. I will show you the bad road pretty soon."
Rollo looked frightened, but said nothing.
"The road seems more wet than common to-day," said Jonas, "I suppose on account of the rain yesterday; and I declare," said he, "I am afraid we shall find the brook up."
"The brook up!" said Rollo.
"Yes-why did not I think of that before? However, we must go on now."
"Why?" said Rollo. "Why cannot we go back?"
"O, because we should be too late; besides, there is no danger, only we may have to wade a little."
As they went on, the mud in the road grew deeper and deeper, and presently Old Trumpeter's legs sunk far down among roots and mire. Rollo began to feel more and more alarmed, and heartily wished that he had taken his father's advice.
Soon alter they came to a place where the path, for some distance before them, was full of water, deep and miry. Jonas said he thought that they had better go out upon one side; so he made the horse step over a log and go in among the trees and bushes. The branches brushed and scratched Rollo unmercifully, though he bent down, and leaned over to this side and that, continually, to escape them. He asked Jonas why this path had not dried, as well as the main road, where the chaises had gone; and Jonas told him that the sun and the wind were the great means of drying the open road, but that this narrow and secluded path was shaded from the sun, and sheltered from the wind, and that the water consequently remained a long time among the moss, and roots, and mire.
After a time, they got back into the path again, and, going on a little farther, they came down to the margin of the brook. They found that it was "up," as Jonas had feared. At the place where the path went down and crossed the brook, a deep cut had been worn in the two opposite banks, and this was filled with water, and above and below the stream rushed on in a torrent. Jonas hesitated a moment, and then asked Rollo if he thought he could hold on, while they we're riding through. Rollo said he was afraid it was so deep as to drown them. Jonas then said that he might get off and stand upon a rock by the side of the path, while he rode through, first, to see how it was, and that then he would come back for him.
So Rollo got off, in fear and trembling, and stood on the rock, while Jonas urged his horse into the water. Old Trumpeter did not much like this kind of travelling, but Jonas half persuaded and half compelled him to go through. When he was in the middle, the water came up so high, that Jonas was obliged to lift up his feet to keep them from being wet. Presently, however, it became more shoal, as the horse walked slowly along; and at last he fairly reached the dry ground, and stood dripping on the bank.
Rollo was glad to see that the water was no deeper, but was still afraid to go over. He told Jonas he could not go over I here, and that he must go back with him.
"No," said Jonas, "that would not be right."
"Why," said Rollo, "we can ride fast, and overtake them."
"Not very soon," said Jonas. "If we go back now, they will get to the mill before us, and then will be very anxious and unhappy, thinking that something has happened to us; and perhaps your father will come through here after us. Now it was your own plan, coming across here, and you ought not to make other people suffer by it. Your father advised you not to come."
"I know it," said Rollo; "what a foolish boy I was! I shall certainly be drowned."
"O no," said Jonas, "there is no real danger, or I should not make you go;" and so saying, he came back slowly through the water. "See," said he, "it is not very deep."
LITTLE MOSETTE
After some further persuasion Rollo got on behind him, and they began to in make their way slowly through the water again. Old Trumpeter staggered along, but not very unsteadily on the whole, until he got a little past the middle, when he blundered upon a stone on the bottom, which he could not see, and fell down on his knees. Jonas caught up his feet, in an instant, and Rollo had his already drawn up behind him, and they both grasped the saddle convulsively. The horse happened to regain his feet again in a moment, so that they contrived to hold on; and in a few minutes they were drawn out safely upon the shore, without even getting their feet wet.
"Well, Old Trumpeter," said Jonas, "you have done pretty well for you, and you have got the mire washed off your legs, at any rate. But, Rollo, what is that?"
He pointed back, as he said this, to a little tuft floating round and round in a small eddy, made by a turn of the brook, just above where they had crossed. He turned his horse towards it. "It is a bird's nest," said he.