Bunker!" cried Bunny, "couldn't we take Charlie for a ride?"

"Well, yes, but not just now. I want to give you children a little
lesson in driving, and we don't want to be crowded. Some other time
we'll take Charlie," said the fish boy.

So, as he drove past his chum, Bunny leaned out of the cart and called:

"We'll give you a ride to-morrow, Charlie!"

"All right--thanks!" shouted the little boy in answer.

A little later Sue saw some of her girl playmates--Mary Watson and Sadie
West--and to them she said the same thing--that she would take them for
a ride the next day.

"Don't promise too much," warned Bunker Blue. "We don't want to make
Toby too tired."

But I guess the Shetland pony liked to draw children about, at least as
long as the roads were level, and he did not have to haul the cart
uphill.

Coming to a quiet part of the road, just outside the village, where
automobiles seldom came, Bunker Blue gave the two children their first
lesson in driving. He showed Bunny and Sue how to hold the reins, and
how to pull gently on the left one when they wanted the pony to turn
that way.

"And when you want him to go to the right just pull on the right-hand
line," said the fish boy. "But be careful in turning all the way around
that you don't turn too quickly, or you may upset the cart and spill
out."

"I spilled off my sled once," said Bunny. "And I rolled all the way
downhill. But I didn't get hurt, for I rolled into a bank of snow."

"Well, there aren't any snow banks here, now, to fall into," said
Bunker, "so be careful about rolling out."

Then the fish boy showed the children how to hold the reins gently, but
firmly, when Toby was trotting straight along, and he showed them how to
pull in when they wanted the pony to stop.

Then, after a while, Bunker let Bunny take the reins himself, for a
little while, and drive Toby. The little boy was delighted to do this.
He even guided the pony first to the right and then to the left, and
then brought him to a stop.

"Fine!" cried Bunker. "That's the way to do it, Bunny!"

"Can't I do it, too?" asked Sue, for she always liked to do the things
her brother did.

"Yes, it's your turn now," said the fish boy, and the little girl took
the reins. And Toby was so gentle, and seemed so eager to do everything
he could to make it easy for Sue, that she soon learned to drive a
little bit.

Then Bunker showed them how to turn around, and how to make Toby back
up, in