“Ah,” she continued, after thinking a little more, “I know what I will do. I will get out carefully upon the runner, and step along till I get on to the end of the runner, behind the sleigh; and then, as long as the horse goes on right, I will cling on, and he shall carry me home; but when I see any difficulty coming, then I will jump off.”
So Jenny stepped out very carefully, holding on by the back of the sleigh, and took her place upon the end of the runner, on one side. She went on so, very well, for a short distance, for the horse did not go very fast. If she had been much frightened, and had screamed or called out very loud, it would have frightened the horse very much, and he would have soon got into a run. But, as all was quiet, the horse supposed that all was right, and so he trotted along towards home, just as usual.
But then, in a very few minutes after this, he turned into the road which led down the bank to the river.
“O dear me!” said Jenny. “He will draw my feet all over in the water. I’ll jump off.—No, I’ll jump in.”
She had but a moment to decide which to do; but she happened to decide right. She jumped in, just as the horse was stepping carefully into the water at the margin of the river. She sat down upon the seat, and held on by one side of the sleigh. The runners plunged into the water, and then, with a jolt, struck the edge of the ice, and rose up upon it. The horse then began to trot again.
“There,” said Jenny, “I am safe on the ice. Now I can get out again upon the runner.”
However, by this time Jenny had become quite quiet and composed in her new situation. She found that the horse was going along very regularly, and she reflected that, as she had got out of the village, she had passed all the places where there were bad corners to turn, and also that it was not now very probable that she should meet any body coming. So she concluded to remain in the sleigh, especially as she would have to go through the water again, when the horse went up off the ice.
So she staid in the sleigh. She stood up in the front of it, upon one corner, and took hold of the dasher, in order that she might stand firmly. In this way she rode along. The horse trotted very fast, but the road was level and smooth, and its direction changed only by great curves, which followed the bends in the stream. At length, the horse came to the place for going up upon the land. He stopped trotting when he came to the water, looked down into it, stepped carefully in, and then very soon took the sleigh and Jenny out safe to the solid ground. He walked up the bank, turned into the road, trotted on a short distance, and then wheeled round up into the farmer’s yard. He walked along to the barn door, and there stopped for Jenny to get out and unharness him.
“Well,” said Jenny to herself, as she stepped out of the sleigh. “This is pretty well.” She looked around towards the house, and saw no light. So she knew that her mother had gone to bed in her bed-room, on the back side. The bag for the bran was lying in the moonlight on the step of the door, where her father had left it. She turned around again to the horse, and took hold of the reins, which were hanging like a bundle of ribbons from the horse’s shoulder.
“This was all the difficulty,” she said. “If I had only had these reins, I could have stopped him. I’ve a great mind now to get in again, and drive him back. I’ll see if I can turn him round, at any rate.”