confident as he became accustomed to his situation, he began presently
to dance about, or rather to perform certain awkward antics, which
he considered dancing, looking round continually, with a mingled
expression of guilt, pleasure, and fear, in his countenance, in order
to be sure that his father was not coming. Finally, he undertook to
make his horse trot a little. The horse, however, by this time,
began to grow somewhat impatient at the unusual sensations which
he experienced--the weight of the rider being concentrated upon one
single point, directly on his back, and resting very unsteadily
and interruptedly there,--and the bridle-reins passing up almost
perpendicularly into the air, instead of declining backwards, as they
ought to do in any proper position of the horseman. He began to trot
forward faster and faster. Jemmy soon found that it would be prudent
to restrain him, but in his upright position, he had no control
over the horse by pulling the reins. He only pulled the horse's head
upwards, and made him more uneasy and impatient than before. He then
attempted to get down into a sitting posture again, but in doing
so, he fell off upon the hard road and sprained his ankle. The horse
trotted rapidly on, until the bags fell off, first one and then the
other. Finding himself thus wholly at liberty, he stopped and began
to eat the grass at the road-side, wholly unconcerned at the mischief
that had been done.

Jemmy's distress was owing much more to his alarm and his sense of
guilt, than to the actual pain of the injury which he had suffered. He
was, however, entirely disabled by the sprain.

"It is rather a hard case," said Beechnut, "no doubt, but never mind
it, Jemmy. A man may break his leg, and yet live to dance many a
hornpipe afterwards. You'll get over all this and laugh about it one