But the quack came out of time, I suppose, for his throat got filled with water, as the hurdle carried him back again.

And then there was scarcely the screw of his tail to be seen until he swung up again, and left small doubt by the way he sputtered, and failed to quack, and hung down his poor crest, but what he must drown in another minute, and frogs triumph over his body.
Annie was crying, and wringing her hands, and I was about to rush into the water, although I liked not the look of it, but hoped to hold on by the hurdle, when a man on horseback came suddenly round the corner of the great ash-hedge on the other side of the stream, and his horse's feet were in the water.
'Ho, there,' he cried; 'get thee back, boy.

The flood will carry thee down like a straw.

I will do it for thee, and no trouble.' With that he leaned forward, and spoke to his mare--she was just of the tint of a strawberry, a young thing, very beautiful--and she arched up her neck, as misliking the job; yet, trusting him, would attempt it.

She entered the flood, with her dainty fore-legs sloped further and further in front of her, and her delicate ears pricked forward, and the size of her great eyes increasing, but he kept her straight in the turbid rush, by the pressure of his knee on her.