step,
however, we were each on dry ground.

"Est-il beau?" called my husband, who was driving.

"Oui, monsieur."

"Yes, John, come just here, it is perfectly good."

"No, no--go a little farther down. See the white gravel just there--it
will be firmer still, there."

Such were the contradictory directions given. He chose the latter, and
when it wanted but one step more to the bank, down sunk both horses,
until little more than their backs were visible.

The white gravel proved to be a bed of treacherous yellow clay, which,
gleaming through the water, had caused so unfortunate a deception.

With frantic struggles, for they were nearly suffocated with mud and
water, the horses made desperate efforts to free themselves from the
harness. My husband sprang out upon the pole. "Some one give me a
knife," he cried. I was back in the water in a moment, and, approaching
as near as I dared, handed him mine from the scabbard around my neck.

"Whatever you do, do not cut the traces," cried his mother.

He severed some of the side-straps, when, just as he had reached the
extremity of the pole, and was stretching forward to separate the
head-couplings, one of the horses gave a furious plunge, which caused
his fellow to rear, and throw himself nearly backwards. My husband was
between them. For a moment we thought he was gone--trampled down by the
excited animals; but he presently showed himself, nearly obscured by the
mud and water. With the agility of a cat, Harry, who was near him, now
sprang forward on the pole, and in an instant, with his sharp jack-knife
which he had ready, divided the straps that confined their heads.

The horses were at this moment lying floating on the water--one
apparently dead, the other as if gasping out his last breath. But hardly
did they become sensible of the release of their heads from bondage,
than they made, simultaneously, another furious effort to free
themselves from the pole, to which they were still attached by the
neck-strap.

Failing in this, they tried another expedient, and, by a few judicious
twists and turns, succeeded in wrenching the pole asunder, and finally
carried it off in triumph across the river again, and up the bank, where
they stood waiting to decide what were the next steps to be taken.

Here was a predicament! A few hours before, we had thought ourselves
uncomfortable enough, because some of our horses were missing. Now, a
greater evil had befallen us. The wagon w