In the mean time, Jenny’s father, after helping the miller about getting the grain into the mill, and pouring it into the hopper, came back for Jenny. When he saw that the sleigh was gone, he said,—
“Ah, John has taken her into the house, I see. Well, he was pretty quick about it.” So he went back into the mill.
In the same way, John, when he had carried in his pail of water, came back to look for Jenny and the sleigh. When he saw that they were gone, he said,—
“Ah, they have taken her into the mill, I see. Well, they were pretty quick about it.” So he went back into the house.
In the mean time, the horse trotted on. Jenny’s first thought was to jump out at once. But the horse was coming fast down the hill to the bridge, and that made her afraid to jump out there; for she thought that, if she should fall down upon the hard planks, it would hurt her more than to fall upon the snow. So she concluded to wait until she should have got over the bridge.
But now, as she was passing the bridge, she recollected what her father had told her about always stopping to consider what it was best to do when she was placed in any dangerous situation; and so she concluded not to jump out at once, but to reflect a little whether it would be best to jump out or not.
“If I jump out,” she said to herself, “I shall get thrown down, perhaps, and hurt my head. And then, besides, the horse and sleigh will go home alone, and my mother will think that my father and I are thrown out and killed, and so she will be very much frightened. No, I had better not jump out.”
Then she thought of another plan. “I might climb along one of the shafts towards the horse’s head, and try to get hold of the reins, and then I could stop him.—But no,” she added, “that will not do. It might frighten him, and make him run away faster.”
Here she paused, and thought a little more about it.
“But, then,” she said to herself again, presently, “if I keep in the sleigh, and the horse runs against any thing, or runs quick round a corner, and turns the sleigh over, then I shall be thrown out, and shall be killed.