better, while apparently
most of the other minds were, and remained, a blank. Only he could not
refrain from causing horse-laughs outside, and making grins at every
opportunity.

But, with much anxiety, and after many exhortations, Mr Harford gave
out his tickets. The girls were to be conveyed--the most of them--in
the Greenhow waggon, driven by old Pucklechurch, the boys to walk. Mr
Goodenough would drive his daughters; and Sophia, in her white dress and
cap (nobody wore a veil then), would be with her sisters and brother in
the chariot with post-horses. Captain Carbonel and Mr Harford went
outside on the box.

They had passed Downhill, and were getting on, as well as their horses
could, through the muddy ground at the bottom, freshly stirred up by a
previous wet day. Before them was a steep, short ascent, but at the
bottom of this there was a sudden stop. The captain put his head in at
the window and said, "Only the cart--no harm," and strode on following
Mr Harford, while the ladies craned their heads out, and Dora,
exclaiming "An accident," ran after him, and Mary only just withheld
Sophy, in consideration of her white dress, on the post-boy's assurance,
with a scarcely suppressed grin, "No harm done, ma'am. Only they lads."

For what the two gentlemen and the amused post-boy had seen was this.
The squadron of boys had overtaken the cart full of girls, when, just as
the waggon had come to the pitch of the hill, all the load of maidens
were seen tumbling out at the back, and as the horses of the chariot
halted, the girls' screams, mingled with the horse-laughter of the boys,
was plainly to be heard. Only Susan Pucklechurch, sitting on the front
seat with her father, remained in her place. The girls were giggling
and helping one another up, nearly all unhurt, but some very angry, and
Bessy Linwood was scolding violently, Pucklechurch likewise in his most
growling voice, "Ye young good-for-noughts! I'll lay the cart whip
about your idle, mischievous backs," while the party of boys were still
laughing, and one voice was heard to shout, "Rubbish shot here." A peal
of laughter followed, but was cut short by Bessy Linwood's, "Here's
parson; you'll catch it." Then, at the top of her voice, "Sir, 'tis
them boys! They've bin and pulled out the linch-pins and shot us all
down into the mud!"

"Is this so?" said the captain sternly, while silence came down on the
party, except for the sobs of Jenny Hewlett, who