. . .ash;she’s down on the flat there, and not very flash, you may be sure—I’ll get my habit on, and mother will send up my things with Billy in the evening. Here’s my bridle.’

Having stated the case thus briefly, Miss Freeman retired into a remarkably small bedroom which she shared with two younger sisters and a baby-brother, to make the requisite change of raiment, while Charley Banks ran into the stockyard and caught the varmint,35 ambling black mare, which he knew very well by sight. As he led her up to the hut Miss Tottie came out, carrying her saddle in one hand and holding up her alpaca habit with the other. She promptly placed it upon the black mare’s back, buckled the girths, and touching the stirrup with her foot, gave a spring which seated her firmly in the saddle, and the black mare dashed off at an amble which was considerably faster than a medium trot.

‘What a brute that mare of yours is to amble, Tot. . . Read More