Although very anxious to carry her home immediately, my heart died within me at the prospect of a long gallop on a skittish mare with a plump Dorking hen tied up in a bag on my lap.
There was no help for it, however, and I tried to put my bravest face on the matter.

The difficulties commenced at the very point of departure, for it is not easy to say farewell cordially with your hands full of reins, whip, and poultry.

But it proved comparatively easy going whilst we only cantered over the plains.

It was not until the first creek had been reached, that I really perceived what lay before me.

Helen distrusted the contents of the bag, and kept trying to look round and see what it contained; and her fears of something uncanny might well have been confirmed when she took off at her first flat jump.