"I can wait here, anyway," she decided at once. "Some one may come
looking for him, and I can tell which way he went."

She sat still where she was for a little while longer. She had
nearly made up her mind to follow the child, when, to her great
relief, she heard another horse coming.

"I can send whoever it is after him," she thought, springing up and
running out to the path. "Oh, wait! Please wait!" she called to the
as yet unseen rider.

The horse was pulled to a walk, and its rider slipped to the ground,
coming into Joy's sight with the bridle over her arm, and the animal
following her.

"Did you see--" began the strange lady, just as Joy said:

"Would you please--"

Then each stopped and waited for the other to go on, though the lady
with the big white horse seemed in haste to ask and be gone. She was
the first to continue, rather hurriedly.

"Did you see a little boy on a pony, riding this way?" she asked.
"I'm hunting for him."

While Joy replied she looked admiringly at the speaker. She was much
taller than Joy, and very pretty, with long blue eyes, a creamy
skin, and hair that was the very "golden-yellow" of the ballad. She