if you, Lizzie,
would learn to throw a lasso, or lariat,--I believe both terms are
correct,--it would be a great advantage, especially in case of meeting
ferocious animals. The park laws will not allow us to kill them, and it
would be mighty convenient, Lizzie. Not to mention that it would be an
accomplishment few women possess."

I refused to make the attempt, although Tish sent for the clothesline,
and with the aid of the encyclopaedia made a loop in the end of it.
Finally she became interested herself, and when we left rather
downhearted at ten o'clock she had caught the rocking-chair three times
and broken the clock.

Aggie and I prepared with little enthusiasm, I must confess. We had as
much love for the rocks and rills of our great country as Tish, but, as
Aggie observed, there were rocks and rocks, and one could love them
without climbing up them or falling off them.

The only comfort we had was that Charlie Sands said that we should ride
ponies, and not horses. My niece's children have a pony which is very
gentle and not much larger than a dog, which comes up on the porch for
lumps of sugar. We were lured to a false sense of security, I must say.

As far as we could see, Tish was making few preparations for the trip.
She said we could get everything we needed at the park entrance, and
that the riding was merely sitting in a saddle and letting the pony do
the rest. But on the 21st of June, the anniversary of the day Aggie was
to have been married, we went out to decorate Mr. Wiggins's last
resting-place, and coming out of the cemetery we met Tish.

She was on a horse, astride!

She was not alone. A gentleman was riding beside her, and he had her
horse by a long leather strap.

She pretended not to see us, and Aggie unfortunately waved her red
parasol at her. The result was most amazing. The beast she was on jerked
itself free in an instant, and with the same movement, apparently,
leaped the hedge beside the road. One moment there was Tish, in a derby
hat and breeches, and the next moment there was only the gentleman, with
his mouth open.

Aggie collapsed, moaning, in the road, and beyond the hedge we could
hear the horse leaping tombstones in the cemetery.

"Oh, Tish!" Aggie wailed.

I broke my way through the hedge to find what was left of her, while the
riding-master bolted for the gate. But to my intense surprise Tish was
not on the ground. Then I saw her. She was still on the creature, and
she wa