But the stride of the big black horse was almost twice
the length of the pony’s. And he answered
the rein perfectly. Rhoda rode to the right of
the grey, stretched forward her long arm, and swerved
her own mount at the same moment.
A single jerk on the lines of the pony, dragging her
sideways, and the runaway crossed her forefeet and
crashed to the ground, almost throwing a somersault
the fall was so abrupt.
But the grey was not much hurt. Rhoda had drawn
Prince in, was out of the saddle, had run to seize
the pony’s bridle before the fallen animal could
get to her feet and continue her mad race.
THE TREASURE OF ROSE RANCH
Walter Mason came running as hard as he could across
the field; but he had only to seize Prince’s
reins and manage that excited animal. Rhoda had
the grey pony well in hand.
“Well, you’re a wonder for a girl!”
exclaimed Grace’s brother.
“Humph!” said Rhoda in return, “I
don’t consider that a compliment—if
you meant it as such. Look out, or that black
horse will step on you.”
“She was just as cool as a cucumber,”
Walter told Nan and his sister afterward. “Why!
I never saw such a girl.”
“I guess,” Nan Sherwood said shrewdly,
“that we don’t know much about girls who
are born and brought up in the far West. Rhoda
Hammond is a friend to be proud of. She has such
good sense.”
“And pluck to beat the band!” cried Walter.
“I’d like to see that country she comes
from.”
“And me, too,” agreed Bess Harley, who
overheard this statement.
“‘Rose Ranch,’” murmured Grace.
“Such a pretty name! After all, she has
said just enough about it to be very tantalizing,”
and the smaller girl smiled.
“Maybe she does that purposely,” Bess
remarked. “Perhaps she thinks we have so
many things she hasn’t obtained yet, that she
wants to make us jealous a bit.”
“I really don’t think that Rhoda worries
about what she doesn’t have,” Nan put
in. “Perhaps she doesn’t even see
that she lacks anything that we have.”
“Well, she never will go in for athletics,”
Bess declared.
“Athletics!” burst out Walter. “Why,
there isn’t another girl at Lakeview Hall who
could do what she did just now.”
They were all agreed on that point. Even Dr.
Prescott and the staff of instructors commented upon
Rhoda’s stopping the runaway. Professor
Krenner, the mathematics teacher, and with whom Nan
and Amelia Boggs took architectural drawing, selected
Rhoda to be one of a small party at his cabin up the
lake one spring afternoon. And the professor’s
parties were famous and very much enjoyed by those
girls who understood the queer and humorous old gentleman.
He played his key-bugle for them, showed them how
to bark birches for the purpose of making canoes (he
was building one for his own use) and finally gave
them a supper of wild duck, served on birch-bark platters,
and corn pone baked on a plank before the embers of
a campfire and seasoned mildly with wood smoke.
