do when any of the riders got a fall in the circus, or fainted from
exhaustion after they left the ring, where "do or die" was the motto
all adopted.

In a minute, the blue eyes opened, and she recognized the anxious face
bending over her, saying faintly, as she touched it:

"My good little Ben, I knew you'd find me--I sent Lita for you--I'm so
hurt I couldn't come."

"Oh, where? What shall I do? Had I better run up to the house?" asked
Ben, overjoyed to hear her speak, but much dismayed by her seeming
helplessness, for he had seen bad falls, and had them, too.

"I feel bruised all over, and my arm is broken, I'm afraid. Lita tried
not to hurt me. She slipped, and we went down. I came here into the
shade, and the pain made me faint, I suppose. Call somebody, and get
me home."

Then, she shut her eyes, and looked so white that Ben hurried away
and burst upon old Mrs. Paine, placidly knitting at the end door, so
suddenly that, as she afterward said, "it sca't her like a clap o'
thunder."

"Aint a man nowheres around. All down in the big medder gettin' in
hay," was her reply to Ben's breathless demand for "everybody to come
and see to Miss Celia."

He turned to mount, for he had flung himself off before Lita stopped,
but the old lady caught his jacket and asked half a dozen questions in