Another half-hour passed and her toes were half-frozen, and her fingers
and her little nose pinched and red. She wished she had put on her
gloves before she took the cord in her hands. Now she could not drop it
to put them on. The jacket she wore was not a very warm one. Oh, why did
not Mark come back? It occurred to her that perhaps he might be playing
a trick to punish her; but she could not believe he would be so cruel.
Should she drop the string at last, and tell him afterwards that she had
held it as long as she could endure the cold? No, she would go on
holding it. He should see that she could bear something for his sake.
Hetty had been about an hour shivering at her post when Mark, riding
gaily along the road many miles from home, suddenly remembered Hetty and
the cord. He felt greatly startled and shocked at his carelessness. "I
ought to have sent Jack with the pegs to finish the work, and to tell
her I was going to ride," he reflected; "but it can't be helped now. She
will never be such a goose as to stay there long." And he felt more
sorry thinking of how the string would be lying slack until his return
than for treating Hetty so inconsiderately.
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