I have said before that he had some cake in a box in his hand, and
having tossed off his hat--lest by any accident it should fall off when
he was stooping forwards, he threw himself upon the grass his full
length, and as he rested on his right hand; with his left he sprinkled
some of the cake he had with him on the ground, to attract the doves
near to him, in the hope he would catch one; and the second, he rightly
guessed, would not then be long out of his power. Marten relied on the
tame habits of the doves, who had been accustomed not only to eat out of
his brother's hands, but also from his mother's, and occasionally of
late from his own; but it is a different thing feeding birds in their
own aviary, and when they have escaped half wild to their native haunts.
And now, whilst the boy stretched upon the ground, was wholly occupied
in the earnest desire of reclaiming the wanderers, Reuben's attention
after awhile was diverted by seeing that some one was approaching
towards them from a hill, in a direction farthest from their home. This
person was riding at no slow pace, and as I said before, as his road led
him down hill, he seemed not to spare his horse; meeting the wind, as
Reuben thought gloriously, and passing along at a pace, the child
considered more glorious still. "When I am a man," the little fellow
said to himself, "I will ride so, I will have a horse, and I will ride
very very fast,--yes,--that I will."

Now it seemed that the rider from the elevated road could look over the
meadows below, and probably having good eyes, for they certainly were
young and sharp ones, he soon spied out Marten and Reuben, and as it
came out afterwards that Marten was the person he sought after, he
caused his pony to leap over a small ditch that was in his way, and then
guiding it to a gate he dismounted and fastened the animal to the post
by its bridle. In leaping the ditch his hat had fallen off, and making
signs to a large Newfoundland dog that had accompanied him, the noble