exactly according to F----'s pilot-hand on the opposite bank:
steering implicitly by this I escaped the holes and rocks which he had
come against, and got over safely, but trembling, and with chattering
teeth. F----said, quite disdainfully, "You don't mean to say you're
really frightened?" So then I scolded him, rather incoherently, and
demanded to be praised for coming at all! I wrung my habit out as well
as I could, F---- poured the water out of his boots, and we proceeded,
first over a plain, and then to climb a high steep hill. I wonder if you
have any idea how disagreeable and dangerous it is to go zigzag up the
side of a mountain after such rain as we have had. The soil was just
like soap, nothing for the horses' hoofs to take hold of, not a pebble
or a tuft of grass; all had been washed away, and only the slippery clay
remained. As usual, F---- went first and I followed, taking care not to
keep below him, lest he and Leo should come "slithering" (that is
the only word for it) down upon me; but, alas, it was Helen and I who
slithered! Poor dear, all her legs seemed to fly from under her at once,
and she came down on her side and on my legs. I felt the leaping-crutch
snap, and found my left shoulder against the ground; I let go the reins,
and thought we had better part company, but found I could not move
for her weight; _she_ struggled to get up, and we both slipped down,
down--down: there was no reason why we should not have gone on to the
bottom of the hill, when a friendly tussock afforded her an instant's
resting-place for her hind hoofs, and she scrambled to her feet like a
cat. I found myself still on her back; so I picked up my reins and tried
to pretend that I had never thought of getting off. F---- dared not stir
from his "bad eminence;" so Helen and I wended our slippery way up to
him, and in answer to his horrified "Where is your habit?" I found I was
torn to ribbons; in fact, my skirt was little more than a kilt, and
a very short one too! What was to be done? We were only three or four
miles from our destination, so we pushed on, and at the last I lingered
behind, and made F---- go first and borrow a cloak or shawl. You would
have laughed if you had heard my pathetic adjurations to him to be
sure to bring it by himself. I was so afraid that some one else would
politely insist on accompanying him. But it was all right, though even
with this assistance it was very difficult to arrange matters so as to
be to