One of them looked up at
Hale:
"I wish ye'd help this lady 'cross."
"Certainly," said Hale, and the girl giggled when he laboriously
turned his old mule up to the boulder. Not accustomed to have
ladies ride behind him, Hale had turned the wrong side. Again he
laboriously wheeled about and then into the yellow torrent he went
with the girl behind him, the old beast stumbling over the stones,
whereat the girl, unafraid, made sounds of much merriment. Across,
Hale stopped and said courteously:
"If you are going up this way, you are quite welcome to ride on."
"Well, I wasn't crossin' that crick jes' exactly fer fun," said
the girl demurely, and then she murmured something about her
cousins and looked back. They had gone down to a shallower ford,
and when they, too, had waded across, they said nothing and the
girl said nothing--so Hale started on, the two boys following. The
mule was slow and, being in a hurry, Hale urged him with his whip.
Every time he struck, the beast would kick up and once the girl
came near going off.
"You must watch out, when I hit him," said Hale.
"I don't know when you're goin' to hit him," she drawled
unconcernedly.
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