Jack the Englishman

by H. Louisa Bedford

And Mr. Marks, his neighbour, slept upon the advice and waked in the morning determined to act upon it, so he and his son after much difficulty had succeeded in roping the bullock's horns and between them were going to lead it down to the township to the butcher, but as the farmer opened the gate which led into the lane he relaxed his hold for a moment and the bullock broke away and was advancing with rapid trot and lowered horns towards the tempting spot of colour in front of it.

All this Jack took in at a glance and his one thought was Eva's danger. There was yet some little distance between her and the angry beast, and he ran rapidly towards her shouting as he ran.

"Run, Eva, run back home; the bullock isn't safe."

The child, startled by the call, looked round, saw the animal bearing down upon her and with a howl of terror turned to fly, but her foot tripped in a rut and she fell face downwards to the ground, roaring lustily. There was no time to pick her up and console her so, little Jack sped past her determined to put his small person between her and the enemy. Behind he saw the farmer and his son in hot pursuit. A moment's delay and the danger would be averted, but Jack was far too young to argue out the matter in cool blood.

All he felt was the necessity of preventing the bullock from reaching Eva, and the spirit inherited from his father made him try to shield her. But the bullock was dashing towards him with lowered horns and wild eyes, and Jack with the instinct of self-preservation raised his arms and threw the parcel he carried straight at its forehead; the bag broke with the force of the blow and the flour it contained came pothering out, blinding and confusing the angry animal. For a moment it stayed its onward course, tossing its head to rid itself of the intolerable dust, and that moment saved the situation, for Farmer Marks, who had taken a short cut across another paddock, came bounding over the fence with his stock-whip in hand and with a tremendous shout and resounding crack of his whip, caused the bullock to turn back and plunge madly towards the field from which it had escaped. It was driven into a far corner, and the gate by which it had escaped was made doubly fast.

"And this afternoon it must be dealt with if I have to put a bullet into it," said the farmer to his son, "but upon my word it was a near shave with the little lad. I never saw a pluckier stand in my life."

Then he hastened back to see what had happened to Jack, and was considerably concerned to see Mrs. Kenyon kneeling on the road by his side, and a grave fear filled him lest, after all, the beast should have gored the boy; but nothing more serious had occurred than that Jack, having nerved himself up to the effort of turning the animal from its course, had suffered from nervous collapse and fainted. Eva, the danger over, had picked herself up and come trotting towards him, had caught sight of his closed eyes and white face and had rushed screaming to the house to fetch her mother, crying that a great big bull had rushed at Jack and he was deaded, deaded in the road, which alarming information had brought Mrs. Kenyon at full speed to the rescue. And there Farmer Marks found her chafing the boy's hands and trying to restore consciousness.

"I'll carry him to your place where you can took after him better," he said, stooping to lift the boy with rough tenderness, and as he carried him he told the story of Jack's plucky defence of the child that was smaller than he.

"You may blame me," he said, "as I should have blamed myself to my dying day if anything had happened to either of them, but after all the thing was an accident. I was acting on Treherne's advice and taking the creature to be put out of harm's way. That it broke from me so suddenly was scarcely my fault. I can only assure you it won't happen again."

"I'm much too thankful a woman to blame anyone," said Mrs. Kenyon, her bright eyes dimmed with tears. "He's coming to, I think; leave him to me, and will you let the Trehernes know that he is here and safe?"