n blossom time, and
thought, with a strange thrill of self-pity, that she would never ride
under its white arch again. Then came her mother's face, and Papa
Jack's. In a few moments, she told herself, they would be picking up her
poor, broken, lifeless little body from the street. How horribly they
would feel. And then--she screamed and shut her eyes. The carriage had
dashed into something that tore off a wheel. There was a crash--a sound
as of splintering wood. But it did not stop their mad flight. With a
horrible bumping motion that nearly threw her from the carriage at
every jolt, they still kept on.

[Illustration: "BUT IT DID NOT STOP THEIR MAD FLIGHT"]

They were on the quay now. The noon sun on the water flashed into her
eyes like the blinding light thrown back from a looking-glass. Then
something white and yellow darted from the crowd on the pavement, and
catching the horse by the bit, swung on heavily. The horse dragged along
for a few paces, and came to a halt, trembling like a leaf.

A wild hurrah went up from both sides of the street, and the Little
Colonel, as she was lifted out white and trembling, saw that it was a
huge St. Bernard that the crowd was cheering.

"Oh, it's H-Hero!" she cried, with chattering teeth. "How did he get
here?" But no one understood her question. The faces she looked into,
while beaming with friendly interest, were all foreign. The eager
exclamations on all sides were uttered in a foreign tongue. There was no
one to take her home, and in her fright she could not remember the name
of their hotel. But in the midst of her confusion a hearty sentence in
English sounded in her ear, and a strong arm caught her up in a fatherly
embrace. It was the Major who came pushing through the crowd to reach
her. Her grandfather himself could not have been more welcome just at
that time, and her tears came fast when she found herself in his
friendly shelter. The shock had been a terrible one.

"Come, dear child!" he exclaimed, gently, patting her shoulder.
"Courage! We are almost at the hotel. See, it is on the corner, there.
Your father and mother will soon be here."

Wiping her eyes, he led her across the street, explaining as he went how
it happened that he and the dog were on the street when she passed. They
had been in the gardens all morning and were going home to lunch, when
they heard the clatter of the runaway far down the street. The Major
could not see who was in the carriage, only