up for
Briarcroft institutions.

"Not enough of it," sighed Gipsy. "I like hockey, but it's nothing to a
day's riding."

"Did your headmistress ride too?" enquired Lennie.

"Rather! Miss Yorke was Colonial born, and could have sat a kangaroo, I
should think! She was a different article from Poppie, I assure you."

"Can't imagine Poppie controlling a fiery steed," giggled the girls.

"I should like to see you on horseback, Gipsy," said Hetty.

"I'd be only too glad to accommodate you, my dear, if you'd provide the
gee-gee. I can tell you I'm just yearning for a canter."

"Nothing but a clothes horse here," remarked Dilys facetiously.

"Or the colt in the meadow beyond the hockey field," said Lennie.

"The colt! Of course I'd forgotten the colt!" exclaimed Gipsy
rapturously.

"You'd never sit that wild thing! You'd have to ride him bareback. Even
your wonderful cleverness can't do everything, I suppose!" said Gladys
sarcastically.

"I can ride bareback," returned Gipsy. "It's nearly as easy as with a
saddle."

"I'd like to see you catch him first."

"That's perfectly possible--he wears a halter. Do you dare me to do it?
How many chocolates will you give me if I do?"

"A dozen, and a whole boxful if you ride him round the field."

"Then I'll show you a little prairie practice this afternoon. I haven't
lived in the Colonies for nothing!"

"Don't, Gipsy, don't! It's too dangerous!" besought Hetty and Lennie.

"She won't really--it's all brag!" sneered Gladys.

"Is it indeed, Miss Gladys Merriman? Just wait till this afternoon, and
I'll undeceive you."

"I'll wait to buy the box of chocolates, though," sniggered Gladys.

None of the girls really believed that Gipsy was in earnest, yet they
sallied forth to the hockey field that afternoon with a certain amused
anticipation. The news had been spread abroad in the Lower School, so
the Juniors had assembled ten minutes in advance of their ordinary time
on the chance of witnessing what Hetty called "the circus-riding". The
hockey ground was divided from the meadow by a strong wooden paling, on
the farther side of which the colt, a shaggy, ungroomed, raw-boned
specimen of horse-flesh, was feeding.

"It is as frisky as--well, as a colt!" said Mary Parsons. "You'd better
not try to catch that creature, Gipsy."

"It'll pretty soon kick her off if she does!" said Alice O'Connor.
"Well, Gipsy? Going to turn tail at the last minute? You'd best give
in!"

"R