That part of the yard was shut off from the rest by a gate; but no gate was proof against Gypsy’s ingenuity.  She could let down bars, lift up latches, draw bolts, and turn all sorts of buttons.  This accomplishment rendered it hazardous for Miss Abigail or Kitty to leave any eatables on the kitchen table near the window.  On one occasion Gypsy put in her head and lapped up six custard pies that had been placed by the casement to cool.

An account of my young lady’s various pranks would fill a thick volume.  A favorite trick of hers, on being requested to “walk like Miss Abigail,” was to assume a little skittish gait so true to nature that Miss Abigail herself was obliged to admit the cleverness of the imitation.

The idea of putting Gypsy through a systematic course of instruction was suggested to me by a visit to the circus which gave an annual performance in Rivermouth.  This show embraced among its attractions a number of trained Shetland ponies, and I determined that Gypsy should likewise have the benefit of a liberal education.  I succeeded in teaching her to waltz, to fire a pistol by tugging at a string tied to the trigger, to lie down dead, to wink one eye, and to execute many other feats of a difficult nature.  She took to her studies admirably, and enjoyed the whole thing as much as anyone.

The monkey was a perpetual marvel to Gypsy.  They became bosom-friends in an incredibly brief period, and were never easy out of each other’s sight.  Prince Zany—­that’s what Pepper Whitcomb and I christened him one day, much to the disgust of the monkey, who bit a piece out of Pepper’s nose—­resided in the stable, and went to roost every night on the pony’s back, where I usually found him in the morning.  Whenever I rode out, I was obliged to secure his Highness the Prince with a stout cord to the fence, he chattering all the time like a madman.

One afternoon as I was cantering through the crowded part of the town, I noticed that the people in the street stopped, stared at me, and fell to laughing.  I turned round in the saddle, and there was Zany, with a great burdock leaf in his paw, perched up behind me on the crupper, as solemn as a judge.

After a few months, poor Zany sickened mysteriously, and died.  The dark thought occurred to me then, and comes back to me now with redoubled force, that Miss Abigail must have given him some hot-drops.  Zany left a large circle of sorrowing friends, if not relatives.  Gypsy, I think, never entirely recovered from the shock occasioned by his early demise.  She became fonder of me, though; and one of her cunningest demonstrations was to escape from the stable-yard, and trot up to the door of the Temple Grammar School, where I would discover her at recess patiently waiting for me, with her fore feet on the second step, and wisps of straw standing out all over her, like quills upon the fretful porcupine.

I should fail if I tried to tell you how dear the pony was to me.  Even hard, unloving men become attached to the horses they take care of; so I, who was neither unloving nor hard, grew to love every glossy hair of the pretty little creature that depended on me for her soft straw bed and her daily modicum of oats.  In my prayer at night I never forgot to mention Gypsy with the rest of the family—­generally setting forth her claims first.