this idea, and bemoaned myself, entirely on their account,
incessantly. When we came to the first crossing, F---- picked me up and
carried me over dry-shod, and this he did at all the fords; but in one
we very nearly came to grief, for I was tilted like a sack over his
shoulder, and when we were quite in the middle, and the water was very
deep, up to his waist, he kept hoisting my feet higher and higher, quite
forgetting that there was plenty more of me on the other side of his
shoulder; so it ended in my arms getting very wet, which he did not seem
to think mattered at all so long as my feet were dry; whereas I rather
preferred having my feet than my head plunged into a surging, deafening
yellow current. At the entrance of the gorge is a large stockyard,
and near to it, at least a mile or two off, a large mob of horses is
generally to be found feeding. We heard great neighing and galloping
about amongst them as we came out of the gorge; it was much too dark to
distinguish anything, but we guessed that our horses had joined these,
and the sounds we heard were probably those of welcome. But the whole
mob set off the moment we came near, and crossed the river again,
entailing a tenth wetting upon poor F----. I was posted at the entrance
of the gorge, with instructions to shout and otherwise keep them from
going up by the route we had just come; but it was more than an hour
before F----could get round the wary brutes, so as to turn them with
their heads towards the stockyard. Of course, he had to bring up the
whole mob. My talents in the shouting line were not called out upon this
occasion, for they all trotted into the stockyard of their own accord,
and I had nothing to do but put up the slip-rail as fast as I could with
only one available arm, for though it is better, I cannot use the other
yet. When F---- came up we both went into the yard, and could soon make
out the two horses which had their saddles on--that was the only way we
could distinguish them in the dark. It was now nearly eleven o'clock,
and though warm enough it was very cloudy, not a star to be seen. We
fastened on the patched up bridles as well as we could by feeling, and
mounted, and rode home, about three miles more, as fast as we could.
When we entered the flat near our own house, we heard loud and prolonged
"coo-ees" from all sides. The servants had made up their minds that some
terrible misfortune had happened to us, and were setting out to look for
u