le.

"I must reach the bridge before he does. He's just stupid enough to keep
right on."

And it was very stupid indeed for the driver of that one-horse "truck
wagon" to try and reach the narrow little unrailed bridge first. It was
an old, used-up sort of a bridge, at best.

Dab loosened the reins a little, but could not use his whip.

"Why can't he stop!"

It was a moment of breathless anxiety, but the wagoner kept stolidly on.
There would be barely room to pass him on the road itself; none at all
on the narrow bridge.

The ponies did it.

They seemed to put on an extra touch of speed, on their own account,
just then.

There was a rattle, a faint crash, and then, as the wheels of the two
vehicles almost grazed one another in passing, Ford shouted:

"The bridge is down!"

Such a narrow escape!

One of the rotten girders, never half strong enough, had given way under
the sudden shock of the hind wheels and that truck wagon would have to
find its path across the brook as best it could.

There were more wagons to pass as they plunged forward, and rough places
in the road, for Dabney to look out for, but even Joe and Fuz were now
getting confidence in their driver. Before long, too, the ponies
themselves began to feel that they had had nearly enough of it. Then it
was that Dab used his whip again, and the streets of the village were
traversed at such a rate as to call for the disapprobation of all
sober-minded people.

"Here we are, Ham, greens and all."

"Did they run far?" asked Ham, quietly.

CHAPTER XXIV

The boys had returned a good deal sooner than had been expected, but
they made no more trouble. As Ford Foster remarked, they were all
"willing to go slow for a week" after being carried so very fast by Dab
Kinzer's ponies.

There was a great deal to be said about the runaway, and Mrs. Foster
longed to see Dab and thank him on Ford's account, but he himself had no
idea that he had done anything remarkable, and was very busily at work
decking Miranda's parlors with the "greens."

A very nice appearance they made, all those woven branches and clustered
sprays, when they were in place, and Samantha declared for them that,

"They had kept Dab out of mischief all the afternoon."

At an early hour after supper, the guests began to arrive, for Mrs.
Kinzer was a woman of too much sense to have night turned into day when
she could prevent it. As the stream of visitors steadily poured in, Dab
re