CHAPTER XII.
RALPH'S REWARD.
Ralph was much surprised to learn that Percy Paget had been in the carriage.
"Was he hurt when he sprang out?" he asked of Mrs. Carrington.
"I am sure I do not know," returned the lady.
"I don't think so," put in her daughter, a beautiful miss of sixteen. "He landed in the middle of a blackberry bush when he sprang from the front seat."
"Then he was driving?"
"Yes, and it was his fault that the team ran away," returned Mrs. Carrington. "I told him that they were very spirited, but in order to make them do their best, as he thought, he used the whip upon them."
"Such a team as that don't need the whip much," put in old Bob Sanderson, who had come up during the conversation, followed by Dan Pickley. "They're too high-minded."
"That is just it," said the lady.