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another two seconds Ann, missing the saddle which so far had succeeded in catching her each time she left it, fell in a little heap among the rushes.

Marsh ran forward, but she was already sitting up and laughing at him.

“No, I’m not a bit hurt.” She rose and shook herself. “See! no bones broken. I don’t think I’m even bruised. Falling off is quite easy.”

“So it seems,” said Marsh.

Nigger, who had pulled up directly he had deposited her in the rushes, was now quietly grazing at a little distance. Marsh walked over and caught him by the trailing bridle.

“I suppose I couldn’t try—just once more, could I?” asked Ann. “I’d be safer next time. I know now that one must just sit on tight.”

“Yes, that’s the idea,” agreed Marsh dryly. “You’ve got the hang of it all right. Just sit tight.”

“You’re laughing at me,” said Ann. “Oh well, I suppose I did look idiotic. But I’m going to learn to ride—you wait and see.”

“Yes, but I’m not going to teach you. I oughtn’t to have allowed you to do this today—I’d no business to. What would the boss have said to me if I’d brought you home with a broken neck?”

“It’s Mr. Holmes you’re thinking of, not me?”

“Well, naturally I’d think of him first. I shouldn’t want to upset him.”

Ann laughed.

“You’re certainly frank.”

“No good telling lies about it. He comes first with me—before any one.”

“You’re fond of him?”

“He’s a white man.”