give him away because he was so ugly and
stupid; but I begged hard that he might stay at Darrow, and my father
gave him to me for my own. I have had him now four years. You don't know
how much I have suffered for that horse. But I have never despaired, and
have trained him so well that he has great speed already, though they
may laugh at his rough looks. O, if I can only win this race! It will be
such a feather in my cap!'

"Satterlee laughed merrily at this. 'As zealous a racer as ever, I see,
Miss Lillie. How I wish you would let me ride for you!'

"'Perhaps I may,' she answered. 'There is no knowing to what straits I
may be driven.'

"Already something in this woman attracted me, dead as I supposed my
heart to be. There was an indescribable freshness and vigor about
everything she said and did, so different from the manner of the ladies
I had lately seen,--a merry, defiant way which invited battle, and made
one feel bright and springy. How can I tell what it was? I loved the
woman from that very morning, and I love the memory of her now,--she
stood so unembarrassed, so full of life, as we two ate our breakfast in
the little, sunny room,--she was so lithe, so symmetrical. When we rose
she said, 'My father thought you would like to fish with him, Mr.
Satterlee, and Mr. Erle is to ride with me, if he so pleases.' I
murmured a few words of compliment, and she went on: 'Come out to the
barn and choose a horse, and Mr. Satterlee may have a look at the colt.'
We followed her out of doors, just as we were,--hatless, like herself.

"'It is no fine stable we have at Darrow, but the horses are well off,
and I pass so much time with them that I love the old, dingy place,' she
said, as we crossed the yard.

"It was a great country barn, in truth, low and warm, with places for
cows and sheep as well as horses. A broad floor ran from one great door
to the other, covered with loose wisps of hay and straw, and above our
heads was the winter's store of both. A red rush-bottomed chair and a
table stood at one end,--two little pieces of furniture around which
cluster the pleasantest memories of my life,--Lillie's chair and
Lillie's table, where she sat to sew and sing among her animals. What
happy mornings I spent there by her side.

"As we went in she began to talk to her colt, as a woman generally talks
to babies. 'Why, my sweet one, my own lamb, my coltikins, was he glad to
hear his granny coming to see him?'--and so on.

"T