"No; but I see you think it," retorted Helga. "You have heard me say that I like Rosendal as it is, and you exhibit your English ideas to show how uncivilized and wanting in taste I am."
"But are you not imputing evil," said Hardy, "like Kirstin, the grossly suspicious?"
Helga blushed and said nothing, and Pastor Lindal determined to tell Hardy what Kirstin had imputed to him.
As Garth brought round the horses and a man led out Buffalo, Karl was struck with a great wish to ride the English horse. He asked Hardy hesitatingly. Hardy told him to ask his father, who looked at Hardy.
"The horse is likely to give him a fall," he said, "and he might get an awkward fall; but boys should learn to ride, and I have no objections if you have not."
The Pastor assented, the stirrups were shortened, and Karl mounted.
"Don't pull at his mouth," said Hardy; "he does not like a stranger interfering with his mouth."
"And might I jump him over a ditch on the way home?" begged Karl.
"You may; but I think you had better leave that alone," said Hardy.
Garth drove, and Hardy chatted with the Pastor, but kept his eye fixed on Karl. Buffalo went along at a smooth trot after the carriage—so far, so well; but when they came to the meadow running down to the Gudenaa, Karl rode into the meadow and galloped at a water ditch in the same manner as he had often seen Hardy do. Buffalo stretched out and took the ditch like a bird, making a longer jump than was at all necessary. There was a loud splash and a scream from Frøken Helga, and Buffalo, with an empty saddle, was galloping away.