"I--I think not."
"Let's have a look. No, nothin' to speak o', be good luck. Ye should
niver go slap through a badger country like that, boy; always keep i'
the bottoms, where the grass is short. Now then, up ye go. That's it!"
Dick remounted, though not with quite so elastic a spring as usual,
and they pushed forward at a more reasonable pace.
Accidents of this kind are of common occurrence in the prairies. Some
horses, however, are so well trained that they look sharp out for
these holes, which are generally found to be most numerous on the high
and dry grounds. But in spite of all the caution both of man and horse
many ugly falls take place, and sometimes bones are broken.
They had not gone far after this accident when an antelope leaped from
a clump of willows, and made for a belt of woodland that lay along the
margin of a stream not half-a-mile off.
"Hurrah!" cried Dick, forgetting his recent fall. "Come along,
Crusoe." And away they went again full tilt, for the horse had not
been injured by its somersault.
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