34 The Naturalist of Ciimbrae. 



With much difficulty he managed to set him free. 

 The animal was very tired, and had' had some expe- 

 rience of this kind of work, so he did not struggle much 

 to rise till the word was given him to do so. 



With the horse clear, it would have been possible 

 to have gone for help, but our young carter thought 

 he would first try what he could do by his own efforts. 

 He found that the cart was lying on one side and in 

 a favourable position, and as it was, like most carts on 

 the moorland farms, a tolerably light one, he was able 

 to turn it over without much difficulty, the upturned 

 wheel serving as an assisting weight to bring it down 

 to its proper position. He then had to try and find 

 what the character of the ground was that had caused 

 the mishap. He soon found that he had got on to the 

 side of an old turf wall or dyke, as it is called in those 

 parts. He then knew exactly where he was, and that 

 the worst of the way was over. But the three bags 

 were yet to be hoisted on to the cart. He could not, 

 owing to the size and weight, take one of them in his 

 arms and lay it in the cart, nor had he any convenient 

 way of getting one on to his shoulders. To meet this 

 difficulty, he set one of the bags up on end, then lay 

 down beside it and pulled it down on to his shoulder. 

 But when he attempted to rise with it, that was more 

 than he could manage ; he was too much exhausted 

 by the efforts he had made in freeing the horse and 

 righting the cart. Still not wishing to give in, he 

 crawled on his hands and knees with the bag upon his 

 shoulders till he reached the cartwheel. Laying hold 

 of the spokes he raised himself up little by little till 

 he was in an erect position, and then could easily 



