paddock an' git your fust lesson."

The horses toyed and played with him like a couple of children, but went
pacing away beside him, now and again pulling at his sleeve, poking at
him with their soft muzzles or mumbling at his cheeks with their velvety
lips, a pair of petted, peerless creatures and as beautiful as any God
had ever created. Now and again they stopped short to neigh a peremptory
call, as though asking the reason of this surprising conduct.

"Are you ready, Aunt Katherine?" asked Peggy.

"As soon as Jerome takes your hound in charge. I don't care to have
Toinette driven frantic with fear by the sight of her. She will grow so
excited that I shall be unable to hold her."

Now the past two hours had held a good many annoyances for Peggy Stewart
to whom annoyances had been almost unknown. Perhaps they constitute the
discipline of life, but thus far Peggy Stewart had apparently gotten on
pretty well without any radical chastening processes. Her life had been
simply, but well, ordered, and her naturally sunny soul had grown sweet
and wholesome in her little world. If correction had been necessary
Mammy's loving old heart had known how to order it during Peggy's
babyhood; Harrison had carefully watched her childhood, and her young
girlhood had been most beautifully developed by her guardian, good Dr.
Llewellyn, who loved her as a grand-daughter. Then had come Mrs. Harold,
who had done so much for the young girl. Why could it not have gone on?

Perhaps the ordering of Peggy's life had been too smooth to develop the
best in her character, so Kismet, or whatever it is which shapes the odd
happenings of our lives, had stepped in to lay a hurdle or two to test
her ability to meet obstacles. Since seven-thirty that morning she had
met little else in one form or another, and had taken them rather
gracefully, all things considered. Her breakfast had been delayed an
hour; the breakfast itself had been far from the pleasant meal it
usually proved; she had been needlessly criticised for her habit of
riding with her beloved horses; and now poor Tzaritza, after being
banished the house, was to be debarred from following her young
mistress; something unheard of, since the hound had acted as Peggy's
protectress ever since she could follow her. The blood flooded into the
girl's face, as turning to her Aunt she said very quietly, but with a
dignity which Mrs. Stewart dared not encroach upon:

"I am very sorry to seem in any