s see something or somebody lying beyond in the middle of the
road?"

The old man checked his garrulous tongue to rise and peer into the
darkness, while Dorothy sprang to her feet beside him, straining her
own eyes to follow his pointing finger.

"There is, there is! Looks like a man or boy or bicycle or something
and that horrid car is coming right toward it! Make 'em stop! Holloa!
Loud, loud, for they don't see him! they'll run over him--he'll be
killed!"

But still the gay occupants of the car observed nothing; till at
last a fiercer shriek from Dorothy sounded above their laughter and
instantly hushed it, while the driver of the machine looked curiously
at the cart which the wise oxen, perceiving their own danger, had
drawn out of harm on the roadside. But the stop had been too late.
Though the motor was swerved aside, it had already collided with the
objects in its path, and it was in a terrified silence that the
merrymakers descended from it.

But even old John had been quicker than they and was now bending above
the lad crushed beneath the forward wheels of this hated "go-devil."

"Oh! my poor lad! Oh! my sunny Robin!" he groaned: then in a fury of
anger at the great machine, tried his strength to lift it from its
victim.

Fortunately there were several men in the party, and the car well
equipped against mischance, and so it was swiftly forced away, while
the farmer again stooped over the motionless lad beneath and tenderly
raised him in his arms. For a moment the group gathered about the pair
believed that the boy was dead; then a low moan from his white lips
mingled with the lamentations of John Gilpin and brought relief to
everyone.

Again came flashes of lightning and the growls of thunder, and the
owner of the car exclaimed:

"Lay the boy in the motor and we'll get him to a hospital at once.
Maybe he isn't so badly hurt as seems. Pile up the cushions, somebody,
and give him to me, old man. I'm stronger than you and better used to
sick folks. Doctor Winston is my name."

"The more shame to you then for what you've done this night!" hotly
retorted old John, clasping his burden the closer and moving slowly
toward his own humble cart.

"Idiot! Don't put him in that shaky wagon. Delay may cost his life.
Hospital's the place and the car is swiftest!" cried another of the
gentlemen, indignantly. "Of course we'll see to it that he has the
best of care with no expense spared."

As if he had not heard,