their two new play-fellows. While he paused to think of this, something
happened which kept him from doing what he would have been sure to
regret afterward.

Horses had always been his best friends, and one came trotting up to
help him now; though he did not know how much he owed it till long
after. Just in the act of swinging himself over the bars to take a
shortcut across the fields, the sound of approaching hoofs,
unaccompanied by the roll of wheels, caught his ear; and, pausing, he
watched eagerly to see who was coming at such a pace.

At the turn of road, however, the quick trot stopped, and in a moment a
lady on a bay mare came pacing slowly into sight, -- a young and pretty
lady, all in dark blue, with a bunch of dandelions like yellow stars in
her button-hole, and a silver-handled whip hanging from the pommel of
her saddle, evidently more for ornament than use. The handsome mare
limped a little, and shook her head as if something plagued her; while
her mistress leaned down to see what was the matter, saying, as if she
expected an answer of some sort,--

"Now, Chevalita, if you have got a stone in your foot, I shall have to
get off and take it out. Why don't you look where you step, and save me
all this trouble?"

"I'll look for you, ma'am; I'd like to!" said an eager voice so
unexpectedly, that both horse and rider started as a boy came down the
bank with a jump.

"I wish you would. You need not be afraid; Lita is as gentle as a
lamb," answered the young lady, smiling, as if amused by the boy's