the cherry! Now I've got 'em!"

Splash, crash, rattle! Spattering and plunging, but cooling fast, the
gray team galloped along the shallow bed of the Cocahutchie.

"I wish the old swimming-hole was deeper," said Jack, "but the water's
very low. Whoa, boys! Whoa, there! Almost up to the hub--over the
hub! Whoa, now!"

And the gray team ceased its plunging and stood still in water three
feet deep.

"I mustn't let 'em drink too much," said Jack; "but a little won't hurt
'em."

The horses were trembling all over, but one after the other they put
their noses into the water, and then raised their heads to prick their
ears back and forth and look round.

"Don't bring 'em ashore till they're quiet, Jack," called out the deep,
ringing voice of his father from the bank.

There he stood, and other men were coming on the run. The tall
blacksmith's black eyes were flashing with pride over the daring feat
his son had performed.

"I daren't tell him, though," he said to himself. "He's set up enough
a'ready. He thinks he can do 'most anything."

"Jack," wheezed a mealy voice at his side, "that's my team--"

"I know it," said Jack. "They 're all right now. Pretty close shave
through the trees, that was!"

"I owe ye fifty dollars for a-savin' them and the wagin," said the
miller. "It's wuth it, and I'll pay it; but I've got to owe it to ye,
jest now. Times are awful hard in Crofield. If I'd ha' lost them
hosses and that wagin--"

He stopped short, as if he could not exactly say how disastrous it
would have been for him.

There was a running fire of praise and of questions poured at Jack, by
the gathering knot of people on the shore, and it was several minutes
before his father spoke again.

"They're cool now," he said. "Turn 'em, Jack, and walk 'em out by the
bridge, and up to the mill. Then come home to dinner."

Jack pretended not to see quite a different kind of group gathered
under the clump of tall trees. Not a voice had come to him from that
group of lookers-on, and yet the fact that they were there made him
tingle all over.

Two large, freckle-faced, sandy-haired women were hugging each other,
and wiping their eyes; and a very small girl was tugging at their
dresses and crying, while a pair of girls of from twelve to fourteen,
close by them, seemed very much inclined to dance. Two small boys, who
at first belonged to the party, had quickly rolled up their trousers
and waded out as far as the