Dick and Surajah
at once raised her, and placed her so that, as she sat, she could lean
against a tree.
Here Dick supported her, while Surajah ran and fetched his water
bottle. Annie drank a little, and then said, with a nervous laugh:
"It is very silly of me. But I feel better now. My legs seemed to give
way, altogether."
"It was not silly at all," Dick said. "You have held on most bravely.
I can tell you there are not many girls who would have ridden four or
five and twenty miles, the first time they sat on a horse. Why, I can
tell you the first time I mounted, I did not do a quarter as much, and
I was so stiff I could hardly walk, when I got down. I should have
stopped before, but you kept talking so cheerfully that, it seemed to
me, you could not be anything like as tired as I was, then. I was a
brute not to have known that you must be thoroughly done up, although
you did not say so.
"We have got some food with us. Do you think you could eat, a little?"
She shook her head.
"Not just yet."
"All right. I have brought a couple of bottles of wine I got at one of
the traders' stores, yesterday. You must take a sip of that, and then
we will leave you to yourself for a bit, and you must lie down and
have a good nap.
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