Page:Authors daughter v1.djvu/10

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6
THE AUTHOR'S DAUGHTER.

Australia. There, Allan, don't you see Rattler? After doing all this mischief he comes back penitent, and it is as well, for though you say Charlie will go in harness, the harness is all on Rattler's back. You catch hold of him, he's like a lamb now."

It was the work of some little time to catch the horse, to mend the traces roughly, and to put Rattler in his old position between the shafts. Allan next bound up Tom's leg as well as he could with pockethandkerchiefs, and helped him up into the spring-cart. He next lifted the body of the lifeless stranger, placed it gently on the floor of the cart, removing the seat, and resting the head on a carpet-bag; and then took the girl in his arms, and laid her so that she might be near her father, but where she could not feel the weight press on her to convince her that-all hope was over. She looked surprised at the manner in which she was lifted, and perhaps a little offended, but a glance at Allan's kind face, with the honest blue eyes full of a moisture very unusual to them, made the little lady forgive the liberty. He next fastened Charlie to the spring-cart, as Tom had declined to drive so sad a load with his lame foot. Under any other circumstances, Tom would have thought nothing of driving with a sprained ancle, for, as he said, his feet had nothing to do with the business;