just the same. Directly I try to make him stir, he begins to kick, and
when he kicks it's awful. They're like fish-hooks, and I'm torn to
pieces."

Jack began to laugh.

"Ah, yes, you may laugh," said his brother; "but you wouldn't like it."

"No," laughed Jack, "but you do look such a jolly old guy stuck up
there, I can't help laughing."

"But do try and help me out."

"How?" said Jack.

"Oh, I don't know. Stand still, Shoes, do! Oh, I say, don't kick
again, pray don't! Good old horse then."

Shoes whinnied as his master patted and talked to him, but the thorns
pricked him so at even this light movement, that the poor animal stamped
angrily, and snorted as he pawed the ground.

In spite of his intense desire to laugh, Jack saw that matters were
really serious for his brother; and leaping off, he threw down his reins
at his horse's feet, whipped out his great hunting-knife, and proceeded
to cut and hack away the thorns by which his brother and his horse were
surrounded.

They were indeed like fish-hooks, and so sharp and strong, that once in
amongst them no one could have escaped without having clothes and skin
ploughed and torn in a terrible way.

Shoes stood perfectly still now. He snorted at times and twitched the
skin of his withers, turning his great eyes appealingly to Jack, who
plied his heavy sheath-knife so effectively that at last the mass of
thorns was sufficiently hacked away to allow horse and rider to move.

Fortunately for Dick, he was a clever horseman. Had he ridden like some
people, who hang a leg on each side of a horse and call that riding, he
must have been thrown. For at the first touch to start him, Shoes was
so eager to get out of the thorny torture to which he had been
subjected, that he made a tremendous bound, and alighted clear,
trembling and sweating profusely.

"Oh, I say, Jack, I am scratched," grumbled Dick, giving himself soft
rubs all over. "Don't laugh. It does hurt so."

"But I feel as if I can't help it," cried Jack, who burst into a fresh
roar.

"I don't think I should have laughed at poor old Dinny, if I had known
how it hurts. Those thorns are nearly as sharp as needles."

"Well, there, I won't laugh any more; but you weren't tossed up on the
thorns by a rhinoceros. Come along. Let's go after father;" and they
set off, but very gently, for Dick's face was screwed into a fresh
grimace at every motion of the horse, while the poor beast itself was
mar