Jessie felt that this was quite true, though she knew that Adele was doing wrong. She realized that she ought to do something, but she did not know just what. If she insisted upon getting out and going home she would leave Adele all alone, and that would be worse than staying to help her out of any difficulty into which she might fall. “Perhaps I’d better drive,” she ventured after a while when Adele had recklessly driven over a big stone and had almost bumped into a stump by the way.
“No, you shall not,” returned Adele. “The only way to learn to do a thing is to keep on doing it, no matter if you do it wrong sometimes. Papa always says so.”
Jessie had nothing to reply to this, but she watched Adele carefully. They were coming to a hill. Jessie looked around earnestly. “Oh!” she exclaimed, “do be careful, Adele. We are coming to the cut. It is at the foot of this hill. We came by the mill, I remember, and this leads by the old schoolhouse. We’d better turn and go back.”
“No, thank you,” replied Adele, “I’m going on. If you are scared you can get out and walk.”
Jessie’s feelings were deeply hurt. She wasn’t exactly scared, but she knew at the foot of the hill was the railroad cut, and though there was always some one there, if the horse took fright, or if anything happened to the cart or harness, it might mean an accident. “We have to cross the railroad,” she said after a pause.
“Well, suppose we do; other people cross it,” was the answer.
“Hold him in,” cried Jessie sharply, clutching at the reins as Dapple Gray went down the hill at a more rapid rate than she felt safe.
“Just let me alone,” cried Adele giving Dapple Gray a light touch with the whip.
“Don’t! Don’t!” cried Jessie, but Adele only laughed, and directly they were at the foot of the hill where the railroad ran. Instead of taking a clean straight course across it, Adele tried to drive diagonally. “There’s a whistle,” cried Jessie in alarm. Adele raised the whip again. Dapple Gray made a plunge forward. A wheel caught and presently Jessie was conscious that she was rolling down an embankment. Then she knew nothing for some time.
When she came to her senses, she was lying in a little gully among some bushes. She raised her head and then struggled to her feet. “No bones broken,” she said to herself, though she felt shaken and sore. She stood up and looked around. At a little distance she saw Adele sitting sobbing miserably. She ran toward her as fast as her bruises would allow. “Oh, Adele! Adele!” she cried, “are you hurt?”