XVI

A WAGON RIDE

Autumn came and Wallace, who was soon to return to college, planned a ride and a picnic. Beechnut was to go, and Frank and Margaret and a number of the village children. Wallace procured two large covered wagons, and with Beechnut's assistance arranged three comfortable seats in each, and each of these seats would accommodate three passengers. So the whole party was to consist of eighteen persons.

They started one day immediately after dinner. Beechnut had charge of one wagon while Wallace had charge of the other. There were two horses to each wagon. The sky was clear and the air cool, and the country was very beautiful robed in brown autumnal colors. The party took a road which led along the bank of the river up the stream. This road was sometimes in the woods, sometimes in the midst of fertile fields of ripening corn, or orchards loaded with apples. Whenever the children observed a tree on which the apples appeared to be particularly sweet and juicy they stopped to gather some of them. The farmers would always give them as many as they wished to take.

They went on thus very pleasantly until Wallace said it was time to turn back. They were now only about two miles from home in a straight line, and yet they could not get back to where they started from without riding nearly twelve miles. The reason of this was that after going up the river five or six miles they had crossed the stream by a bridge in a lonely place among the mountains, and had come down on the other side until they were almost opposite their starting point. Yet as the river was between, and as there was no bridge nearer than the one they had crossed, they could not get home without going back the way they came.

The two wagons were accustomed to keep at some distance apart in order that the one behind might not be troubled by the dust the other raised. Beechnut with the wagon which he was driving was in advance, and his party only appeared in view from time to time well on ahead. Parker was driving the wagon in which Wallace was riding. He sat on the front seat with two of the village girls, Caroline and Augusta. Wallace sat on the middle seat accompanied by Margaret and Mary Bell.

At length, as they were passing a farmhouse, Caroline said she was thirsty, and she proposed to Parker to stop the wagon in order that they might all get a drink of water. "Wallace will go for it," said she, "because he can get out most easily."

"Yes," said Wallace, "I will do so gladly."

He got out and walked toward the farmhouse which was a short distance from the road. When he reached the door he knocked, and a little girl came to see who was there. Wallace asked her if she would be good enough to give him and several friends who were out driving a drink of water. She answered that she would go and get some, and turned and went away leaving him at the door.

Wallace looked toward the wagon which was standing in the road and waved his handkerchief to indicate that he had been successful. For some time he remained at the door, and at last began to wonder what the girl in the house was doing.

The fact was, she found on looking at the water pail that the water in it was not as cool and fresh as she wished to offer to the stranger at the door. So she concluded to go to the spring and get more. It was this that occasioned the delay.

While Wallace remained standing at the step Margaret saw a flower growing by the roadside and asked Mary Bell to let her get out and pick it.

"Oh no, child! " said Caroline. "Sit still. Wallace will be back very soon, and then we shall want to go directly on."

"Why not let her get out?" said Parker. "There will be plenty of time."

"Yes," said Mary, "and I will get out with her, so that I can help her to get back."

Accordingly, Mary and Margaret got out together. Just as Margaret reached the ground she saw Wallace coming with a pitcher of water in one hand, and a tumbler in the other.

Margaret found several flowers, one after another, growing in the grass, and she remained gathering them until all the party in the wagon had drunk. Wallace then offered some water to Mary Bell, and to Margaret, but Margaret was too much occupied with her flowers to be thirsty. After Mary had taken what she wanted, Wallace went back to the house with the pitcher and tumbler.

"Come, Margaret," said Mary, "we must get in."

"Yes," responded Margaret, "in a minute. Here is one more flower that I want to get."

"We shall have to wait for her," complained Caroline. "I knew we should."

Then suddenly a new thought struck her, and she added, "Drive on, Parker. Let us run away from them just a short distance."

So Parker drove on. Caroline looked around to see what Mary Bell and Margaret appeared to think of being thus left behind. She observed that Margaret looked a little frightened; but Mary stood quietly by the roadside as if she were entirely at her ease. Seeing that Mary seemed so unconcerned, Caroline remarked to Parker, "We will go on far enough to make them think we do not intend to stop for them."

Just then she saw Wallace coming from the farmhouse, and she decided that it would be good fun to tease him also a little. "Drive on," said she to Parker; "let us see what they will do."

Wallace came to the roadside, and Mary said, "They are running away from us."

"Never mind," responded Wallace, "they will not run very far, I think."

Then he began to examine Margaret's bouquet. "What pretty flowers," said he.

"Yes," said Margaret; "but the wagon is leaving us behind. Come, let us run."

"Oh, no," said Wallace, "we will walk. They will stop for us pretty soon."

So Wallace and his companions began to walk along the road, following the wagon. The horses were walking slowly, and the company in the wagon were looking back, laughing and making bows of salutation.

Wallace took off his hat and made very polite bows in return.

"We had better run," said Mary. "They will not stop for us and we may as well run and overtake them."

"All right, if you wish it," was Wallace's response.

So they began to run.

"They are coming, Parker!" exclaimed the children in the back part of the wagon. "Whip up, or they will catch us."

Parker whipped up his horses, and soon got them into a canter which of course carried them forward much faster than the pursuers could run. Wallace, therefore, slowed his pace to a walk.

"You see it is of no use to run," said he. "We will walk along quietly, until they get tired of their nonsense, and then they will halt for us."

"I hope you are having a very pleasant walk, ladies and gentleman," said Caroline, calling back from the wagon.

This call was responded to by all her companions with long and loud peals of laughter. Wallace waved his handkerchief as if in acknowledgment of Caroline's kind wishes.

"They are walking along as if they enjoyed it," said Caroline; "but we will make them alter their opinion before we let them get in again, won't we, Parker?"

"Yes," replied Parker, "that we will." "Whip up," ordered Caroline, "and make the horses run a little."

Parker whipped the horses, and they trotted on for a considerable distance, so that Wallace and his party were left far behind.

"Well," remarked Wallace, "I don't see but that we shall be obliged to give it up. They have made us walk now about half a mile, and that is far enough for any reasonable allowance for joking. I think that the best plan for us is not to try to overtake them any more."

"But then how shall we get home?" asked Mary. "It must be ten miles or more."

"It is ten miles round by the road," explained Wallace, "but we might go the other way and get across the river somehow. By that route we would not have to go more than two or three miles."

"But we cannot get across the river," said Mary.

"Oh, yes," said Wallace, "I can get you across in some manner or other. So I propose to turn around and see what we can do."

"I am willing," responded Mary, "only the party in the wagon will stop pretty soon when they find that we do not appear, and they will wonder what has become of us."

"Yes," said Wallace.

"And after they have waited some time," continued Mary, "and we don't come, they will be very much frightened."

"Yes," agreed Wallace, "they deserve to be."

"They won't know what to do," said Mary. "They won't dare to go back without us and leave us here ten miles from home. What will they do?"

"I can't say," responded Wallace. "They must contrive a way themselves to get out of their own perplexities. It is as much as we can do to get out of ours. I don't think it is worth while for three persons on foot, who have been deserted ten miles from home, to trouble themselves much about how those who deserted them are to get home, especially as they have a wagon and a good pair of horses."

By this time the wagon was disappearing around a turn of the road. As soon as it was fairly beyond view Wallace with Mary Bell and Margaret turned and began to walk the other way.

Caroline's persistence in going on came to an end at nearly the same time that Wallace's patience in following was exhausted. Soon after the wagon had passed out of sight of Wallace and his party, Caroline asked Parker to stop and wait till those behind came around the turn. "In fact," she continued, "we may as well let them get in now. We will not make them walk too far."

Parker stopped the wagon, and those in it waited a few minutes talking together and looking for Wallace and the two girls to appear.

"Why don't they come?" Parker said at length.

"I don't know," Caroline responded. "Perhaps they have got tired and are sitting down to rest. They will come pretty soon."

So they waited in the wagon some time longer, but no one appeared.

"Jump down, Parker," said Caroline, "and go back to the turn of the road and see what has become of them."

Parker got out of the wagon and walked to the turn of the road where he stood a minute or two looking earnestly along the road beyond. Then he came back saying as he approached the wagon, "I cannot see anything of them."

"They have gone to hide somewhere in the bushes to frighten us," declared Caroline. "But they will find they are mistaken. We will wait here a little while, and then if they don't come, we will go home without them."

So Caroline and her party waited ten minutes, but Wallace did not appear.

"How provoking they are!" exclaimed Caroline. "It is four o'clock, and time that we were on our way up the river. I have a great mind to go on and leave them altogether."

"Then how would" they get home?" asked Parker.

"I don't know," replied Caroline, "and I don't care. They have no business to keep us waiting so long. Suppose you go back and call them," she added, after a moment's pause. "Perhaps they will hear you and answer."

"Let us turn the wagon round and ride back," said Parker.

"Very well," responded Caroline, "that will be better."

Parker therefore turned the wagon round and drove slowly back along the road, all the party looking intently and eagerly into the forest on either hand and calling out, sometimes one, and sometimes another, "Wal-lace! Wal-lace!" and then again, "Ma-ry Bell! Ma-ry Bell!"

The sound of their voices was echoed back from the mountain sides, but there was no other response. They now began to be seriously troubled. It was getting late, and it was plainly imprudent to remain there much longer, as they now had barely the necessary time to get home before dark. But on the other hand, the idea of going away and leaving Wallace and Mary Bell, and especially such a child as Margaret in so lonely a place and so far from home, seemed wholly out of the question. They even thought it possible that the missing party might have strayed away into some by road and so got lost, in the woods.

For these reasons they were very anxious, and at the same time they were utterly at a loss what to do. They finally concluded they must not remain any longer where they were, and Caroline proposed they should try to overtake the other wagon that they might tell their story to Beechnut and get his aid. This plan was adopted, and Parker turned his horses' heads in the direction of home and drove forward as fast as possible.

Meanwhile Wallace and Mary Bell and Margaret walked along the road down the river. It was a pleasant afternoon, and Mary and Margaret had full confidence that Wallace would contrive some way for getting them home. So they enjoyed the walk very much, and rambled along talking with each other and with Wallace.

They soon came out of the woods and had the river in view close at hand. It was not very wide and it flowed in a smooth and tranquil current. There were distant farmhouses to be seen among the hills across the river, some of which Mary recognized as houses situated not far from where Mrs. Henley lived.

"If we were only on the other side of the river," said she, " we could go directly home and be there in a quarter of an hour; but I don't see how we are going to get across."

"Oh, we shall have no difficulty about that," Wallace assured her. "I have a plan all formed. I am going to take you Over in a boat."

"In a boat?" repeated Mary. "How are you going to get a boat?"

"I am going to take ours," said Wallace. "But our boat is on the other side of the river," said Margaret.

"Yes," responded Wallace, "and I am going across to get it."

"How are you going to get across?" asked Mary.

"By swimming," Wallace replied. "I can swim the river very easily by taking off my coat and my shoes."

In a few minutes after this the party came to a rocky point on the bank, and when they got to the lower side of it they found that Mrs. Henley's house and the boat itself were in sight. "Now you must sit down on the rocks here," said Wallace to his companions, "and you can see me all the way as I am swimming across."

Just then Mary observed something which attracted her attention on the other side of the river. "I think I see a boy standing over there," she said, and after a little pause added, "He has a dog, too. The dog looks like our Curley. It is a large brown dog. Yes, I believe it is Curley, and if it is, the boy must be John Hooker. He is one of our neighbor's boys, and Curley sometimes goes off to play with him."

"Then the boy can bring the boat over to us," said Wallace.

"Oh, no," said Mary, "he is not big enough. It would not be safe to trust him in the boat. I would rather trust Curley to get the boat to us. If Curley only knew that I was here and that I wanted to get home, and if John would untie the rope by which the boat is hitched and put the end of it in Curley's mouth he would swim across and pull the boat after him. He is very strong."

Mary then stood up on the rocks and called with a loud voice, "John Hook-er!"

There came back in reply a prolonged and distant "Hel-lo-o!"

"Is that you, John?" called Mary Bell. The voice answered, "Yes."

Mary now began to call Curley, and as soon as he heard her speak his name he seemed to know who she was and to perceive that she was separated from him by the broad surface of the river. He looked wildly across the stream, barked, ran this way and that along the margin of the water, stopped suddenly and looked at Mary again, and then seemed about to leap into the water.

"Untie the boat, John," Mary called, "and give Curley the end of the rope in his mouth."

John started at once to obey, at the same time speaking to Curley in order to keep him back from the water until the rope was ready. Curley was very much excited and very much perplexed. He ran first to John and then back to the edge of the water to take a look at Mary, darting continually from one place to the other and barking loudly. At length John got the boat untied and offered the end of the rope to Curley, saying, "Seize it, Curley!" and pointing to the water.

Curley seemed to understand. He caught the end of the rope with his teeth and leaped into the river. Mary immediately began to encourage him by calling to him from the opposite shore while Margaret clapped her hands with, delight, exclaiming, "He is coming with the boat! He is coming! He is coming!"

Curley aimed directly across the river, but the current carried him down the stream. So Wallace and the girls began to move down, too. They kept opposite him all the time that they might encourage and cheer him, and prevent his wasting his strength by attempting to swim against the current. He came on very slowly, but finally reached the shore. Wallace stood ready at the margin of the water to take the rope, which Curley promptly delivered to him, and scrambled up the rocks to Mary.

The party crossed the river readily in the boat, with Curley in the bow, and once on the opposite side it took them only a very little while to reach their homes.

When Caroline and those with her failed to find Wallace they had determined to ride on as fast as possible to overtake Beechnut. He was, however, so far in advance that though Parker drove as fast as he could it was not till they reached the bridge nearly half way home that they saw anything of the forward wagon. As soon as Parker got close enough to be heard he shouted to Beechnut to stop, and Caroline called out that they had lost some of their party.

"How did you lose them?" asked Beechnut.

"Why they strayed away from us," replied Caroline, "and did not come back. We waited until we thought it was not worth while to wait any longer, and then we drove on."

"How did they happen to stray away?" Beechnut inquired.

"Why, to tell the truth," said Caroline, " we began it by running away from them."

"Oh," said Beechnut, "that was the case, was it?"

"What had we better do?" questioned Caroline.

"Who are they?" said Beechnut.

The heads were so numerous in the two wagons that Beechnut could not tell what persons were missing.

"There was Wallace," responded Caroline, "and   

"Oh, Mr. Wallace was one, was he?" said Beechnut.

"Yes," answered Caroline.

"Very well then," continued Beechnut, "we have nothing more to do. We will go on."

"What do you mean by that?" asked Caroline.

"I mean," said Beechnut, "that Mr. Wallace will take much better care of himself than you or I can take of him."

So saying, Beechnut started his horses and drove on. When the wagons were near the end of their journey Beechnut turned off from the main road to leave some of those in his party at their homes. The other wagon was to go on and would pass Mrs. Henley's. Caroline felt very anxious and unhappy, and hoped to get some tidings there of her missing friends, though not really expecting that she would.

Margaret was swinging on the front gate and saw them coming. "Now," said she to herself, "I mean to pay them for hoping that we were having a pleasant walk."

The moment, therefore, that the wagon party came within hearing distance, and before Caroline could see who it was that was swinging on the gate, Margaret called out, "I hope, ladies and gentlemen, that you are having a very pleasant ride."

"Why, Margaret!" exclaimed Caroline, "how did you get home? And have Wallace and Mary got home, too?"

"Yes," replied Margaret, "long ago."

"I am so glad," said Caroline; "but how did you cross the river?"

"Guess," said Margaret.

She said this, however, in a tone which plainly indicated that she did not intend to tell. So Parker drove on.

Early the next morning a boy came to the home of Mary Bell with a note for her. She opened it and found it was from Caroline. It was as follows:

My dear Mary:

I am so ashamed of myself for running away from you yesterday that I do not know what to say or do. It was very ungrateful, when Wallace had taken pains to plan the excursion for us and to get the wagons and the horses. I am ashamed to speak to him about it, but I wish you would tell him how badly I feel.

Your friend

Caroline Kent.

Mary sent the note to Wallace, and when he had read it he said, "Well, Caroline is a good girl after all."