CHAPTER VI
A VISIT FROM MRS. HORTON
I had not looked for Jessie and Ralph to return before night, but the article that I had found was scarcely hidden when, chancing to glance down the road, I saw Mr. Horton’s team, with the light wagon attached, trotting briskly toward the house.
Only Jessie, Ralph, and Mrs. Horton were in the wagon, and it startled me at first to observe that Ralph was driving. My astonishment changed to amusement as they drew nearer, and I saw that Mrs. Horton’s capable hands held a firm grip of the lines, just far enough behind Ralph’s not to deprive him of the glory of the idea that he was doing all the driving.
“’Oo! ’oo, dere!” he called imperiously, bringing the horses—with Mrs. Horton’s help—to a standstill before the gate. Jessie sprang out and turned to lift the little driver to the ground, while we all began talking at once. But our mutual torrent of questions was abruptly checked by the contumacious conduct of that same small driver, who deeply resented Jessie’s invitation to him to come off his perch. “Me is doin’ tek care of ’e ’orses,” he declared, scowling defiance at his sister. “Mis ’Orton, ’oo dit out if ’oo p’ease!”
No better description of Mrs. Horton could be given than to say that she was all that her husband was not—the dearest soul. She laughed as she surveyed the conceited little fellow and then said seriously: “How in the world am I to get out if you don’t get out first and help me down?”
Ralph was unprepared for this emergency, but the objection appeared to him reasonable; he slid slowly off the seat—he was so short that it seemed a long time before his tiny toes touched the bottom of the wagon-box—and began climbing laboriously down, over the wheel. When he had at length reached the ground Mrs. Horton stood up and with the reins held securely in one hand she gained the hub of the near wheel. From that vantage she reached down to meet Ralph’s upstretched mite of a hand, and so was gallantly assisted to alight.
To my delight Mrs. Horton announced that she had come to spend the day with us. She led the team to the barn and we proceeded to unharness them without assistance from their late driver, who had already forgotten his intention and his dignity in a romp with his friend and playmate, the cat.