background, his
white linen frock clasped low by his red leather belt, his cherubic legs,
with his short half hose and his red shoes, sticking stiffly out at an
angle of forty-five degrees, his golden curls blowing high on his head,
his face pink with joy and laughter. The light shone too in the big,
astonished eyes of the fine animal he bestrode, now and then turning his
head inquisitively toward Briscoe--who stood close by with a cautious
grasp on the skirts of the little boy--as if wondering to feel the clutch
of the infantile hands on his mane and the tempestuous beat of the little
feet as Archie cried out his urgency to speed.

Archie would not willingly have relinquished this joy till dawn, and the
problem how to get him peaceably off the horse became critical. He had
repeatedly declined to dismount, when at length a lucky inspiration
visited Briscoe. The amiable host called for an ear of corn, and with
this he lured the little horseman to descend, in order to feed a "poor
pig" represented as in the last stages of famine and dependent solely on
the ministrations of the small guest. Here renewed delights expanded, for
the "poor pig" became lively and almost "gamesome," being greatly
astonished by the light and men and the repast at this hour of the night.
As he was one of those gormands who decline no good thing, he affably
accepted Archie's offering, so graciously indeed that the little fellow
called for another ear of corn more amply to relieve the porcine
distresses, the detail of which had much appealed to his tender heart. It
seemed as if the choice of the good Mr. Briscoe lay between the fiction
of riding an endless race or playing the Samaritan to the afflicted pig,
when in the midst of Archie's noisy beatitudes sleep fell upon him
unaware, like a thief in the night. As he waited for the groom to
reappear with the second relay of refreshments, Briscoe felt the tense
little body in his clasp grow limp and collapse; the eager head with its
long golden curls drooped down on his shoulder; the shout, already
projected on the air, quavered and failed midway, giving place to a
deep-drawn sigh, and young Royston was fairly eclipsed for the night,
translated doubtless to an unexplored land of dreams where horses and
pigs and revenue officers and mountains ran riot together "in much
admired disorder." Briscoe bore him tenderly in his arms to the house,
and, after transferring him to his nurse, rejoined with Bayne the l