At last I walked out with my feet rested, and the blood-stain washed away, to run forward and join my companion, who looked at me in a very stolid manner.
“Hev a ride?” he said at last.
“May I?”
“Fey-ther!”
“Hel-lo-a!” came slowly from the barge.
“May this chap hev a ri-ad?”
“Ay-er!”
The boy slipped down off the horse with the greatest ease, and stuck his whip into a link of the trace.
“Now, then,” he said, “lay holt o’ his collar, and I’ll give yer a leg up.”
I obeyed him, and seizing my leg, he nearly shot me right over the horse, but by hanging tightly on to the collar I managed to save myself, and shuffled round into the proper position for riding sidewise, feeling the motion of the horse, in spite of a certain amount of boniness of spine, delightfully easy and restful.