At last the boys let him go, and with a wild bound he jumped through the fence and ran along the road.
But oh, what terrible thing is rattling and banging around him? At every leap he is cruelly struck on his crooked little legs.
Dick had turned his head the other way. His cheeks burned and his heart was sad. Then he opened his eyes and saw his mother standing beside him with a second cup of bitter tea in her hand.
"Such a nice sleep as you have had," she said. "I really think you are better. Now sit up and drink this like a man."
Never a word said Dick. He sat up and drank the bitter tea, while he thought of many things. Had he seen himself in the pictures which the Apple-Tree Mother had brought to his bedside?
—Adapted from "True Fairy Stories."
[THE DIAMOND DIPPER]
I.
| rusty | narrow | further | fern |
| dipper | towered | suffering | brim |
| dying | withered | carefully | spill |