They reached the edge of the swamp and the girls alighted with merry shout and song. They were all armed with big shears or sharp knives, but the berries grew high, and Old Dolliver's boy had to climb for them.
Then the accident occurred—a totally unexpected and unlooked for accident. In stepping out on a high branch, the boy slipped, fell, and came down to the ground, hitting each intervening limb, and so saving his life, but dashing every bit of breath from his lungs, it seemed!
The girls ran together, screaming. The teacher almost fainted. Old Dolliver stooped over the fallen boy and wiped the blood from his lips.
"Don't tech him!" he croaked. "He's broke ev'ry bone in his body, I make no doubt. An' he'd oughter have a doctor——"
"I'll get one," said Ann Hicks, briskly, in the old man's ear. "Where's the nearest—and the best?"
"Doc Haverly at Lumberton."
"I'll get him."
"It's six miles, Miss. You'd never walk it. I'll take one of the teams——"
"You stay with him," jerked out Ann. "I can ride."
"Ride? Them ain't ridin' hosses, Miss," declared Old Dolliver.