she said, "and they know it. That is the reason."

CHAPTER XXV A HAPPY HORSE

FOR a good while after I went to Dingley Farm I was very shy of the
horses, for I was afraid they might kick me, thinking that I was a bad
dog like Bruno. However, they all had such good faces, and looked at me
so kindly, that I was beginning to get over my fear of them.

Fleetfoot, Mr. Harry's colt, was my favorite, and one afternoon, when
Mr. Harry and Miss Laura were going out to see him, I followed them.
Fleetfoot was amusing himself by rolling over and over on the grass
under a tree, but when he saw Mr. Harry, he gave a shrill whinny, and
running to him, began nosing about his pockets.

"Wait a bit," said Mr. Harry, holding him by the forelock. "Let me
introduce you to this young lady, Miss Laura Morris. I want you to make
her a bow." He gave the colt some sign, and immediately he began to paw
the ground and shake his head.

Mr. Harry laughed and went on: "Here is her dog Joe. I want you to like
him, too. Come here, Joe." I was not at all afraid, for I knew Mr. Harry
would not let him hurt me, so I stood in front of him, and for the first
time had a good look at him. They called him the colt, but he was really
a full-grown horse, and had already been put to work. He was of a dark
chestnut color, and had a well-shaped body and a long, handsome head,
and I never saw, in the head of a man or beast, a more beautiful pair of
eyes than that colt had large, full, brown eyes they were that he turned
on me almost as a person would. He looked me all over as if to say: "Are
you a good dog, and will you treat me kindly, or are you a bad one like
Bruno, and will you chase me and snap at my heels and worry me, so that
I shall want to kick you?"

I looked at him very earnestly and wagged my body, and lifted myself
on my hind legs toward him. He seemed pleased and put down his nose to
sniff at me, and then we were friends. Friends, and such good friends,
for next to Jim and Billy, I have loved Fleetfoot.

Mr. Harry pulled some lumps of sugar out of his pocket, and giving them
to Miss Laura, told her to put them on the palm of her hand and hold it
out flat toward Fleetfoot. The colt ate the sugar, and all the time
eyed her with his quiet, observing glance, that made her exclaim: "What
wise-looking colt!"

"He is like an old horse," said Mr. Harry, "When he hears a sudden
noise, he stops and looks all about him to find an explanation."

"He h