lly's ears.

For answer Peggy opened a little linen bag which she carried, handing
to Polly three lumps of sugar and taking three out for her own pet. The
horses crunched them with a relish, their light snaffle bits acting as
only slight impediments to their mastication.

"Do you always give them sugar? Oh, please give us some for our horses,"
begged the girls.

"Young ladies, I don't 'old with givin' the 'orses nothin' while in
'arness and a-mussin' them up. They'll be a-slobberin' themselves a
sight," expostulated Dawson.

"But Miss Stewart's and Miss Howland's horses are not slobbered up,"
argued Natalie.

"They've not got curb bits. Just them snaffles which is as good as none
whatever," was Dawson's scornful criticism.

"Well, why must ours have curbs if theirs don't," argued Juno Gibson,
whose habitual frown seemed to have somewhat lessened during the past
five minutes. If Juno had a single soft spot in her heart it was touched
by animals. She did not have a horse of her own, though she insisted
upon always having the same mount, to Dawson's opposition, for he
contended that to become expert horsewomen his pupils must change their
mounts and become accustomed to different horses. In the long run the
argument was a good one, but Miss Juno did not yield readily to
arguments. Therefore she invariably rode Lady Belle, a light-footed
little filly, with a tender mouth and nervous as a witch. Her big gentle
eyes held a constant look of appeal, she was chafed incessantly by the
heavy chain curb, and if anyone approached her suddenly she started
back, jerking up her head as though in terror of a blow. But with Juno
she was tractable as a lamb, and the pretty creature's whole expression
changed when the girl was riding her. Juno had a light, firm hand upon
the bit and in spite of Dawson's emphatic orders to "'old 'er curb well
in 'and perpetual," she rarely used it, and Lady Belle obeyed her
lightest touch.

"Our 'orses are 'arnessed as they had orter be, Miss Gibson, and as the
Queen 'erself rides them in the hold country. 'Hi'm doing my best to
teach you young ladies proper, and I can't 'old with some of these loose
Hamerican 'abits. They wouldn't be 'eld with for a minute in the Row."

"Oh, a fig for your old Row, Dawson! _We're_ all American girls and
there's more snap-to in us in one of your 'minutes' than in all the
English girls I've ever seen in my life, and I've seen a good
many--_too_ many for my peace of