t tell me
anything except what I ask you. Please be particular about that."

"Go on," said Ralph. "You shall not have a word more or less than
you want."

"Well, then, is your bed comfortable?"

"Perfectly," he answered.

"And have you pillows enough?"

"More than I want," said Ralph.

"And are the doors and windows all fastened and locked downstairs?"

He laughed. "You needn't bother yourself about that sort of thing. I will
attend to the locking up."

She slightly knitted her brows in reflection. "Now then, Ralph," said
she, "I am coming to it, and mind, not a word more than I ask for. Have
we any horses?"

"We have," he replied.

"How many?"

"Four."

Miriam clasped her hands and looked at her brother with sparkling eyes.

"Oh!" she exclaimed, "four horses!"

"Two of them," he began, but she stopped him in an instant.

"Don't tell me another thing," she cried; "I don't want to know what
color they are, or anything about them. To-morrow I shall see them for
myself. Oh, Ralph, isn't it perfectly wonderful that we should have four
horses? I can't stand anything more just now, so please kiss me
good-night."

About an hour afterwards Ralph was awakened by a knock at his door.

"Who is there?" he cried.

The door opened a very little way.

"Ralph," said Miriam, through the crack, "is there one of our horses
which can be ridden by a lady?"

Ralph's first impulse was to throw a pillow at the door, but he
remembered that sisters were different from fellows at school.

"Can't say anything about that until we try," said he; "and now, Miriam,
please go to bed and to sleep."

Miriam shut the door and went away, but in her dreams she rode a prancing
charger into Miss Stone's schoolyard, and afterwards drove all the girls
in a tally-ho.

CHAPTER VI

MRS. TOLBRIDGE'S CALLERS

The next day was a very fine one, and as the roads were now good, and the
air mild, Miss Panney thought it was quite time that she should begin to
go about and see her friends without depending on the vehicles of other
people, so she ordered her little phaeton and her old roan mare, and
drove herself to Thorbury to see Mrs. Tolbridge.

"The doctor tells me," said that good lady, "that you take great interest
in those young people at Cobhurst."

"Indeed I do," said Miss Panney, sitting up as straight in her easy chair
as if it had been a wooden bench with no back; "I have been thinking
about him all the morning. He o