. Instead,
therefore, of losing his head as Helen did (Mr. U---- was riding her),
and striking out wildly with her forelegs to the great danger of the
other horse, Jack took it all as a matter of course, and set himself to
swim steadily down the stream, avoiding the eddies as much as possible:
he knew every yard of the bank, and did not therefore waste his strength
by trying to land in impossible places, but kept a watchful eye for the
easiest spot. F---- knew the old horse so well that he let him have his
head and guide himself, only trying to avoid Helen's forelegs, which
were often unpleasantly near; his only fear was lest they should have
to go so far before a landing was possible that poor old Jack's strength
might not hold out, for there is nothing so fatiguing to a horse as
swimming in a strong current with a rider on his back, especially a
heavy man. They were swept down for a long distance, though it was
impossible to guess exactly how far they had gone, and F---- was getting
very uneasy about a certain wire fence which had been carried across
the creek; they were rapidly approaching it, and the danger was that the
horses might suddenly find themselves entangled in it, in which case the
riders would very likely have been drowned. F---- called to Mr. U----to
get his feet free from the stirrups and loosened his own; but he told
me he was afraid lest Mr. U---- should not hear him above the roaring
of the water, and so perhaps be dragged under water when the fence
was reached. However, Jack, knew all about it, and was not going to be
drowned ignominiously in a creek which would not have wet his hoofs to
cross three days before. A few yards from the fence he made one rush and
a bound towards what seemed only a clump of Tohi bushes, but they broke
the force of the current and gave him the chance he wanted, and he
struggled up the high crumbling bank more like a cat than a steady old
screw. Helen would not be left behind, and, with a good spur from
Mr. U----, she followed Jack's example, and they stood dripping and
shivering in shallow water. Both the horses were so _done_ that F----
and Mr. U---- had to jump off instantly and loose the girths, turning
them with their nostrils to the wind. It was a very narrow escape, and
the disagreeable part of it was that they had scrambled out on the wrong
side of the creek and had to recross it to get home: however, they rode
on to the next stream, which looked so much more swollen