the subject, she pleaded for her excuse, that she was so
frightened she did not know what she did, nor whither she was
going; but as she thought that the dog was coming to her she could
not help jumping up, to get out of his way. Now what ridiculous
arguing was this! Why could not she help it? And if the dog had
really been going to her, what harm would it have done? Could she
suppose that the lady whose house she was at, would have suffered
a beast to walk about the house loose, and go into company, if he
was apt to bite and hurt people? Or why should she think he would
more injure her, than those he had before passed by? But the real
case was, she did not think at all; if she had given herself time
for that, she could not have acted so ridiculously. Another time,
when she was walking, from the same want of reflection, she very
nearly drowned herself. She was passing over a bridge, the
outside rails of which were in some places broken down: while she
was there, some cows, which a man was driving, met her:
immediately, without minding whither she went, she shrieked out,
and at the same time jumped on one side just where the rail
happened to be broken, and down she fell into the river; nor was
it without the greatest difficulty that she was taken out time
enough to save her life. However, she caught a violent cold and
fever, and was again, by her own foolish fears, confined to her
bed for some weeks. Another accident she once met with, which
though not quite so bad as the two former, yet might have been
attended with fatal consequences. She was sitting in a window,
when a wasp happened to fly toward her; she hastily drew back her
head, and broke the pane of glass behind her, some of which stuck
in her neck. It bled prodigiously; but a surgeon happily being
present, made some application to it, which prevented its being
followed by any other ill effects than only a few days weakness,