2oo More Tales of the Birds 



over her, but it made me so tired that I must 

 have fallen asleep." 



The poor little woman put her arm round the 

 dead pony's neck, and began to caress it I saw 

 that it was hopeless to get her home without 

 help, and went on up the road towards the 

 nearest farmhouse, telling her to stay where she 

 was till I came back. There was no need to tell 

 her : she neither could nor would have moved. 



I had not gone far when by good luck I met 

 a waggon returning empty to our village. I 

 stopped the driver, whom I knew, told him what 

 had happened, and got him to undertake to carry 

 both Selina and her pony home in his waggon. 

 I felt sure she would not leave her Fan to the 

 mercy of any one who came by ; and indeed I 

 would not have left her there myself. Fan had 

 so long been one of us that I shuddered to think 

 of what nocturnal creatures might find her out 

 in the night. There was a horrible story of a 

 tramp who had passed a night in a barn not half 

 a mile from this very spot, and had been attacked 

 by rats in his sleep. 



