For an instant the animal hesitated as if suspecting some treachery in this familiar command; then he doubled himself together like a jack-knife, or till he was but a mound of mule-flesh upon the grass.
“She taught him. She rode this way. Billy, get up.”
This strange man had seated himself sidewise upon the mule’s back, leisurely freeing his feet from the loose-hanging harness and balancing himself easily as the animal got up. Then still sitting sidewise he ordered:
“Billy, proceed.”
At once Billy “proceeded” at an even and decorous pace, while the lads walked alongside, vastly entertained by this unusual rider and his mount. He seemed to think a further explanation necessary, for as they neared the bottom of the slope he remarked:
“Learned that in Egypt. Camel riding. She came home and taught him.”
Then they came to the edge of the bank and paused in surprise. Instead of the gay welcome they had expected, there was Chloe walking frantically up and down, hugging a still dripping little figure to her breast and refusing to yield it to the outstretched arms of poor old Ephraim, who stood in the midst of his melons, a woe-begone, miserable creature, wholly unlike his jubilant self of a brief while before.
“What’s—happened?” asked Jim, running to Chloe’s side.
“’Tis a jedgmen’! A jedgmen’! Oh! de misery—de misery!” she wailed, breaking away from him and wildly running to and fro again, in the fierce excitement of her race.