bank! It was one of those deceptive
spots where half the water was overgrown with thick weeds and cress,
making the place appear as narrow again.

The grey was of course hot on Baby's track. Seeing her plight I
naturally pulled up, but he resented this strongly and rose straight on
his hind legs. Fearing he would over-balance, I quickly slacked the
reins and leant forward on his neck. But it was too late; that slippery
mud was no place to try and regain a foothold, and over he came. I just
had time to slip off sideways, promptly lost my foothold and collapsed
as well. How I laughed! There was Captain D. on one side of the canal
vainly trying to capture his "wee red tourie" floating down stream, and
Baby standing by with the mud dripping from her once glossy flanks; and
on the other was I, sitting laughing helplessly in the mud, and the grey
(now almost brown) softly nosing my cap and eyeing his beloved on the
further bank with pained surprise!

To crown all, the train, which had come to a standstill, was by the
irony of fate full of Scottish soldiers on their way up the line. Such a
bit of luck in the shape of a free cinema show had rarely come their
way and they were bent on enjoying it to the fullest extent. The fact
that the officer now standing ruefully on the bank was in Tartan riding
"troos" of course added to the piquancy of the situation.

The woman had come out of her cottage by this time and kept exclaiming
at intervals, "Oh, la-la, Oh, la-la," probably imagining that this
mudbath was only a new pastime of the mad English. She at last was kind
enough to open the gate; and thither I led the grey and then across a
plank bridge beyond, previously hidden from sight.

We scraped the mud off the saddles under a running fire of witty
comments from the train. I knew the whole thing had given them so much
enjoyment that I bore them no illwill. I could see their point of view
so well, it must have been such fun to watch! "Hoots, mon," they called
to the now thoroughly embarrassed D., as we mounted, "are ye no going to
lift the lassie oop?" I was glad we were "oop" and away before the train
started again, and as we trotted along the road, cries of "Guid luck to
ye!" "May ye have a happy death!" (which is a regular north-country
wish, and a very nice one when you come to think of it), followed us.
The batman eyed us suspiciously as we reached Fontinettes where he was
waiting for the horses, and remarked that they seeme