Читать книгу Camping in the Winter Woods: Adventures of Two Boys in the Maine Woods онлайн

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Suddenly Ben stopped his story and stood up, pulling on the reins and shouting orders to his team. Almost before Ed and George realized what had happened, the wagon plunged down a steep bank and was bumping its way through the racing waters of a fair-sized river. The ponies tugged and splashed, the wagon rocked and creaked, and Ben yelled and plied his whip. The river roared angrily, and great white-crested waves broke over the side of the wagon-box.

Then came a jolt that almost tumbled the boys off into the water. They clutched each other in panic as they saw one of the ponies fall to its knees, and felt the wagon swung around by the powerful current. The guide was plying his whip unmercifully, for they were tipping dangerously over on one side. He finally got the pony on its feet again, and his wagon straightened out and made the opposite bank in safety; and the boys yelled with delight.

A little farther on, however, they came to real grief, for the forward wheels sank over the hubs into a bog-hole, and in trying to drag them out one of the ponies became mired in the black, oozy ground.