CHAPTER IV.
THE RIDE TO TOWN.
Lucy’s father lived not a great many miles from a town which was quite large; and the family used often to ride to the town in a chaise or carryall. When only two wanted to go, they took the chaise; but if more than two, the carryall, as that had seats for four.
One pleasant morning, Lucy, Miss Anne, and Royal, set out in the carryall to go to the town, to do some shopping. Royal sat upon the front seat to drive. Lucy and Miss Anne sat behind. Royal moved out to the end of the front seat, and then sat with his back turned a little to the side of the carryall; and by this arrangement he could see the horse, and could also join in the conversation with Lucy and Miss Anne.
“What are you going to buy in town, Miss Anne?” asked Royal.
“O, various things,” replied Miss Anne; “among the rest, I am going to buy a book for Lucy.”
“We have not decided. We are going to choose it when we get to the bookstore.”
Just at this moment, Royal’s attention was attracted by the sight of the heads of a yoke of oxen, just coming into view, in the road before them, as they were coming up a hill. The heads seemed to shake and to be agitated, as if the oxen were running. As they came up higher, and Royal could see a part of their bodies, he found that they were running, and drawing after them a large hay cart; that is, a cart with a large rack upon the axletree, for holding hay, instead of the common cart-body. The hay cart was empty. There was nobody near the oxen to drive them.
In an instant, however, Royal’s eye glanced farther down the hill,—for he had now advanced so far towards the brow of it, that he could see better,—and there he perceived a man running up the hill, with a goad-stick in his hand, and shouting out all the time, for the oxen to stop.
“O dear me!” said Lucy, “O dear me! now we shall all be run over.”