It
was cracked, but Asa succeeded in lighting it; and about the first
object I saw with any distinctness was old Tommy, doubled up behind a
tree.
"Are you hurt?" Addison called to him.
"Wal, I vum, I dunno!" the old man grunted. "Wa'n't that a rib-h'ister!"
Concluding that there was not much the matter with him, we hastened down
to the brook. There hung one horse--William-le-Bon--head downward,
pawing on the stones in the brook with his fore hoofs. He had caught his
left hind leg in the crotch of a yellow birch-tree that grew at the foot
of the ledges. In the brook lay Sally, with a broken foreleg. Beyond her
was Duncan, dead; he had broken his neck. Lill was cast between two big
stones; and she, too, had broken her leg. Moaning dolefully, Prince
floundered near by. Another horse had got to his feet; he was dragging
one leg, which seemed to be out of joint or broken.
Meanwhile the storm swirled and eddied. We did not know what to do. Asa
declared that it was useless to try to save Prince, and with a blow of
the axe he put him out of his misery. Then, while I held the lantern, he
and Addison cut the birch-tree in which William-le-Bon hung.
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