Yet, true to his promise, the boy made no effort to increase the speed
of his mount. Nor did he go beyoud the corner named. Instead, he
circled and came galloping back, one hand resting lightly on the rein,
the other swinging easily at his side.

As he neared the two boys, Tad checked his pony, but Walter motioned
to him to continue. With a smile of keen appreciation, Tad shook out
the reins, and pony and rider swung on down the village street.

The soft breeze bad by now fanned the bright color into the face of
Thaddeus Butler, and his deep blue eyes glowed with excitement and
pleasure; for, to him, there was no happiness so great as that to be
found on the back of a swift-moving pony.

However, this was a pleasure that seldom came to Tad, for his lines
had not fallen altogether in pleasant places. The boy was now
seventeen, and from his twelfth birthday he had been almost the sole
support of his mother. His time, out of school hours, was spent
largely in doing odd jobs about the village where his services were in
demand, and on Saturday afternoons and nights he delivered goods for a
grocery store, for which latter service he earned the--to
him--munificent sum of twenty-five cents. But all of this he
accepted cheerfully and manfully. Now and then Tad was allowed to
drive the grocer's wagon to the station for goods, and at such times
his work was a positive recreation. Some day Tad hoped to have a horse
of his own. He could imagine no more perfect happiness than this. He
had determined, though, that when he did own one, it should be a
saddle horse and a speedy one at that. Yet, at the present moment the
realization of his ambition seemed indeed far away.