Separate streams of water entered the tops of his ridingboots--they were a borrowed pair and too big for him--and his feet were in puddles.

It was only by degrees that he realised this misery.

Then in the boggy track his horse began to stumble.

The fourth or fifth peck woke irritation, and he jerked savagely at the bridle, and struck the beast's dripping flanks with his whip.

The result was a jib and a flounder, and the shock squeezed out the water from his garments as from a sponge.