. The little fellow was stunned, and there was an ugly cut on
his forehead.

"Hugh, dear!" cried Hildegarde. "Is it very bad, little boy? You are all
right now; Jerry and I are here, and you will be feeling better in a
moment."

She took the child's head in her lap, and stanched the blood with her
handkerchief, rubbing his temples gently, while Gerald chafed his hands.
Presently Hugh opened his eyes. At first his look was vacant, but soon
the light came back into the blue eyes, and he tried to smile.

"I pawed too hard!" he whispered. "Beloved, it wasn't the right valley
to paw in."

Hildegarde and Gerald exchanged glances.

"He's a little out!" murmured Gerald. "We'd better get him home as
quick as we can. Phil and I will carry him."

By this time the others, looking back, had seen that something was
wrong, and came hurrying back. Colonel Ferrers turned very white when he
saw Hugh lying motionless, his head pillowed on Hildegarde's lap, and
the red stain on his temple.

"My little boy!" he gasped. "Jack, where are you? The child! The child
is hurt!" Jack was already bending over Hugh; indeed, the anxious group
pressed so close that Hildegarde motioned them to back.

"I don't think he is much hurt," she said, looking up at the Colonel,
and speaking as cheerfully as she could. "He spoke to me just now,
Colonel Ferrers. He was stunned by the fall. I don't think the cut
amounts to anything, really."

"No," said Jack, who had been examining the cut, "this isn't anything,
Uncle Tom. It's the shock that is the trouble, and he'll be over that in
a minute. You're better already, aren't you, old chap?"

Hugh opened his eyes again, but slowly, as if it were an effort.

"How do you do?" he said, politely. "Yes, I am better, thank you, but
not quite well yet. You did not seem to understand what I said, so I
thought I would wait till I could speak better."

Seeing Jack look bewildered, Gerald whispered, "He was talking nonsense.
He takes you for me now; it was to me he was talking."

"I was not talking nonsense!" said Hugh, clearly. "I said I had been
pawing in the valley, and that this was not the right valley to paw in.
It wasn't! My Beloved will understand what I mean, if she uses her
mind."

"He was a horse!" cried the Colonel. "Astonishing thing, that nobody can
understand that child, when he is speaking perfectly rationally. He was
a horse, I tell you! Whinnied at me, sir, when I asked him to get me a
hockey-