case at the present time, for your
sister being gone on the Continent, it devolves upon me, that is not
used to long statements, to let ye know, what ye will be very sorry to
hear. I only hope it may be no worse before it is over.

"Matthew, the coachman, came running over to me on Monday morning last,
and said would I come to the house, for the servants did not know what
to be at, and told me that Johnnie, who had been to go back to Harrow by
the eleven o'clock train, had got leave to drive the pheaton to the
Junction with the four girls in it, and Bertram, who, by ill luck--of I
may use such a word (meaning no irreverence)--of this dispensation of
Providence, had not gone back to Mr. Tikey's that morning. So far as I
can make out, he thought he should be late, and so he turned those two
spirited young horses down that steep sandy lane by the wood, to cut off
a corner; and whether the woodman's children ran out and frightened
them, or whether he was shouting and whooping himself, poor laddie--for
I heard something of both--but Barbara was just sobbing her heart away
when she told it, and he aye raised the echoes wherever he went; but the
horses set off, running away, tearing down that rough road. Johnnie
shouted to them all to sit still, and so they did, though they were
almost jolted out; and if they had been let alone, there might have been
no accident; but two men sprung out of a hedge and tried to stop them,
and they turned on to the common, and sped away like the wind towards
home, till they came to the sand bank by the small inn, the Loving Cup,
and there they upset the carriage, and when the two men got up to it
Johnnie and all of them were tossed out, and the carriage was almost
kicked to pieces by the horse that was not down.

"This is a long tale, Valentine, and I seem to have hardly begun it. I
must take another sheet of paper. When I got to the house, you never saw
such a scene. Johnnie had been brought in quite stunned, and his face
greatly bruised. There were two doctors already with them. Bertram had
got a broken arm; he was calling out, poor little fellow, and Nancy was
severely hurt, but I was grieved to see her so quiet. Gladys seemed at
first to be only bruised and limping; but she and Barbara were faint and
sick with fright. Janie was not present; she had been carried into the
inn; but I may as well tell ye that in her case no bones were broken,
poor lamb. She is doing very well, and in a day or tw