Ernest's want of muscular strength did not tell against him here;
there was no jostling up against boys who, though neither older nor
taller than he, were yet more robustly built; if it came to mere
endurance he was as good as anyone else, so when his carpentering
was stopped he had naturally taken to "the hounds" as his favourite
amusement. His lungs thus exercised had become developed, and as a run
of six or seven miles across country was not more than he was used to,
he did not despair by the help of the short cuts of overtaking the
carriage, or at the worst of catching Ellen at the station before
the train left. So he ran and ran and ran till his first wind was gone
and his second came, and he could breathe more easily. Never with "the
hounds" had he run so fast and with so few breaks as now, but with all
his efforts and the help of the short cuts he did not catch up the
carriage, and would probably not have done so had not John happened to
turn his head and seen him running and making signs for the carriage
to stop a quarter of a mile off. He was now about five miles from
home, and was nearly done up.
He was crimson with his exertion; covered with dust, and with his
trousers and coat sleeves a trifle short for him he cut a poor
figure enough as he thrust on Ellen his watch, his knife, and the
little money he had.
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