extreme ends, settled himself comfortably in his saddle, leaning
well back, and turning round laughingly to me, observed, "Aren't you
coming?" "Oh, not there," I cried in true melo-dramatic tones of
horror; but it was all in vain, F--- merely remarked "You have
nothing to do but fancy you are sitting in an arm-chair at home, you
are quite as safe." "What nonsense," I gasped. "I only wish I
_was_ at home: never, never will I come out riding again." All this
time the leading horse was slowly and carefully edging himself down
hill a few steps to the right, then a few to the left, just as he
thought best, displacing tons of loose stone and even small rocks at
every movement. Helen, nothing daunted, was eager to follow, and
although she quivered with excitement at the noise, echoed back from
the opposite hills, lost no time in preparing to descend. Her first
movement sent such showers of rubble down upon F--- and his horse,
that I really thought the latter would have been knocked off his
legs. "If you _could_ keep a little more to the right, so as to
send the stones clear of me, I should be very grateful," shouted
F---, who was actually near the bottom of the hill already, so sharp
had been the angles of his horse's descent. I felt afraid of
attempting to guide Helen, lest the least check should send us both
head over heels into the quagmire below, and yet it seemed dreadful
to cause the death of one's husband by rolling down cart loads of
stones upon him. It could not have been more than five minutes
before Helen and I stood side by side with Leo, on the only bit of
firm ground at the edge of the morass. I believe I was as white as
my pocket handkerchief; and if fright could turn a person's hair
grey, I had been sufficiently alarmed to make myself eligible for
any quantity of walnut pomade.

Fortunately the summer had proved rather a dry one, and the swamp