When in the dying light and by the gleam of the lantern
we went through the dense brush, down the steep bank,
and on to the river, the horses were every second ready
to bolt. Peter snorted and danced, Dan laid his ears back
on his head. But the boy gave warning at every open hole,
and we made it safely. At last we got back to the road,
I kept talking and purring to the horses for a while,
and it seemed they were quieting down.
It was not an auspicious beginning for a long night-drive.
And though for a while all things seemed to be going
about as well as I could wish, there remained a nervousness
which, slight though it seemed while unprovoked, yet
tinged every motion of the horses and even my own state
of mind. Still, while we were going west, and later,
north into the one-third-way town, the drive was one of
the most marvellously beautiful ones that I had had during
that winter of marvellous sights.
As I have mentioned, the moon was in its first quarter
and, therefore, during the early part of the night high
in the sky. It was not very cold; the lower air was quiet,
of that strange, hushed stillness which in southern
countries is the stillness of the noon hour in
midsummer--when Pan is frightened into a panic by the
very quiet.
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