You would have been frightened too, I think, sir!" She added this little retort to her explanation with some considerable spirit, a bit nettled by the Captain's chaff.
"Well, well, my dear, perhaps you are right," he replied good- humouredly.

"I also have a confession to make, missy.

Just before Rover cantered up, with you holding on to his tail like Mazeppa lashed to the back of the fiery untamed steed of the desert, a blackbird flew out of your blackberry thicket, brushing past my face, and do you know it startled me so that I jumped back, losing my hat.

So, you see, I got a fright too!" "I see'd yer, sir," said Dick, the Captain looking round as if awaiting comment on his action.

"I see'd yer done it!" "And so did I," cried Bob, the appearance of whose face had not been improved by his struggles with the thorny bushes as he tried to force his way through them to Nellie's rescue.