"Oh, Jack!" she exclaimed, "I'm so proud! Did you ride fast? I'm glad I can ride! I could have done it, too. It was splendid!"
"Molly," said Jack, "I don't mind telling you. The sorrel mare galloped all the way, going and coming, up hill and down; and Molly, I kept wishing and thinking every jump she gave,—wishing I was galloping to New York, instead of to the Four Corners!
"Molly," he added quickly, "father gives it up and says I may go!"
CHAPTER VI.
OUT INTO THE WORLD.
Monday morning came, bright and sunshiny; and it hardly reached Crofield before the people began to get up and look about them.
Jack went down to the river and did not get back very soon. His mind was full of something besides the flood, and he did not linger long at the mill.
But he looked long and hard at all the pieces of land below the mill, down to Deacon Hawkins's line. He knew where that was, although the fence was gone.
"The freshet didn't wash away a foot of it," he said. "I'll tell father what Mr. Hammond said about selling it."