As soon as
they were gone, Edward, who was still castle-building, instead of
offering his services to Alice, brought out his father's sword and
commenced cleaning it. When he had polished it up to his satisfaction,
he felt less inclined than ever to do any thing; so after dinner he
took his gun and walked out into the forest that he might indulge in
his reveries. He walked on, quite unconscious of the direction in
which he was going, and more than once finding his hat knocked off by
the branch of a tree which he had not perceived--for the best of all
possible reasons, because his eyes were cast on the ground--when his
ears were saluted with the neighing of a horse. He looked up and
perceived that he was near to a herd of forest ponies, the first that
he had seen since he had lived in the forest.
This roused him, and he looked about him. "Where can I have been
wandering to?" thought Edward; "I never fell in with any of the forest
ponies before; I must, therefore, have walked in a direction quite
contrary to what I usually do. I do not know where I am--the scenery
is new to me. What a fool I am! It's lucky that nobody except Humphrey
digs pitfalls, or I should probably have been in one by this time; and
I've brought out my gun and left the dog at home.
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