g.

While we were talking, grandma kept busily at work, and sometimes she
wiped her face with the corner of her apron, yet we did not think of
her as listening, nor of watching us, nor would we ever have known it,
had we not learned it later from her own lips, as she told others the
circumstances which had brought us into her life.

Some days later Georgia and I were playing in the back yard when Leanna
appeared at the door and called out in quick, jubilant tones:
"Children, run around to the front and see who has come!"

True enough, hitched to a stake near the front door was a bay horse
with white spots on his body and a white stripe down his face, and tied
to the pommel of his saddle was another horse with a side saddle on its
back. It did not take us long to get into the house where we found
Elitha and our new brother, who had come to arrange about taking us
away with them. While Elitha was talking to grandma and Leanna, Georgia
stood listening, but I sat on my new brother's knee and heard all about
his beautiful spotted horse and a colt of the same colors.

Elitha could not persuade Leanna or Georgia to go with her, nor was I
inclined to do so when she and grandma first urged me. But I began to
yield as the former told me she was lonesome; wanted at least one
little sister to live with her, and that if I would be that one, I
should have a new dress and a doll with a face. Then my new brother
settled the matter by saying: "Listen to me. If you'll go, you shall
have the pinto colt that I told you about, a little side saddle of your
own, and whenever you feel like it, you can get on it and ride down to
see all the folks." The prospects were so alluring that I went at once
with Leanna, who was to get me ready for the journey.

Leanna did not share my enthusiasm. She said I was a foolish little
thing, and declared I would get lonesome on such a big place so far
away; that the colt would kick me if I tried to go near it, and that no
one ever made saddles for colts. She was not so gentle as usual when
she combed my hair and gave my face a right hard scrubbing with a cloth
and whey, which grandma bade her use, "because it makes the skin so
nice and soft."

Notwithstanding these discouragements, I took my clothes, which were
tied up in a colored handkerchief, kissed them all good-bye, and rode
away sitting behind my new brother on the spotted horse, really
believing that I should be back in a few days on a visit.