P. S. Benjie’s had a letter, and one twin fell down stairs.
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There is one sentence in the first paragraph of the following letter
which reminds me of a very windy day, when I was staying at Summer
Sweeting place.
In returning from a walk, by a short cut across the field, I met a boy
who was running just about as fast as he could.
Soon after I came to another and much smaller boy, who was not running
at all, but was sitting flat upon the ground, under a tree, and crying
with might and main. This smaller boy proved to be Tommy. On a branch of
the tree, just out of his reach, hung a broom, towards which his weeping
eyes were turned in despair. A paper of peanuts which I happened to have
soon quieted him, because, in order to crack them, he had to shut his
mouth. At the first of it, however, he went on with his crying while
picking out the meats, which so amused me that I was obliged to turn
aside and laugh.
It appeared that Tommy had been riding horseback on his mother’s broom
“to see Billy,” and when he had made believe get there, he wanted to
hitch his horse. A larger boy, out of mischief, or rather in mischief,
bent down a branch of the tree, telling Tommy there was a tiptop thing
to tie up to. He helped Tommy to tie the horse to the branch, and then
ran off across the field. It is very plain what happened when the branch
sprang back to its place.
I unhitched the _animal_, and then Tommy and I mounted it, he behind me,
and away we cantered to the house, my amazing gallops causing the little
chap to laugh as loudly as he had cried.
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