Jackanapes got up and shook himself, none the worse, except for being
heels over head in love with the red-haired pony. What a rate he went
at! How he spurned the ground with his nimble feet! How his red coat
shone in the sunshine! And what bright eyes peeped out of his dark
forelock as it was blown by the wind!

The Gipsy boy had had a fright, and he was willing enough to reward
Jackanapes for not having been hurt, by consenting to let him have a
ride.

"Do you mean to kill the little fine gentleman, and swing us all on
the gibbet, you rascal?" screamed the Gipsy-mother, who came up just
as Jackanapes and the pony set off.

"He would get on," replied her son. "It'll not kill him. He'll fall on
his yellow head, and it's as tough as a cocoanut."

But Jackanapes did not fall. He stuck to the red-haired pony as he had
stuck to the hobbyhorse; but oh, how different the delight of this
wild gallop with flesh and blood! Just as his legs were beginning to
feel as if he did not feel them, the Gipsy boy cried "Lollo!" Round
went the pony so unceremoniously, that, with as little ceremony,
Jackanapes clung to his neck, and he did not properly recover himself
before Lollo stopped with a jerk at the place where they had started.

"Is his name Lollo?" asked Jackanapes, his hand lingering in the wiry
mane.

"Yes."

"What does Lollo mean?"

"Red."

"Is Lollo your pony?"

"No. My father's." And the Gipsy boy led Lollo away.

At the first opportunity Jackanapes stole away again to the common.
This time he saw the Gipsy-father, smoking a dirty pipe.

"Lollo is your pony, isn't he?" said Jackanapes.

"Yes."

"He's a very nice one."

"He's a racer."

"You don't want to sell him, do you?"

"Fifteen pounds," said the Gipsy-father; and Jackanapes sighed and
went home again. That very afternoon he and Tony rode the two donkeys,
and Tony managed to get thrown, and even Jackanapes' donkey kicked.
But it was jolting, clumsy work after the elastic swiftness and the
dainty mischief of the red-haired pony.

A few days later Miss Jessamine spoke very seriously to Jackanapes.
She was a good deal agitated as she told him that his grandfather, the
General, was coming to the Green, and that he must be on his very best
behavior during the visit. If it had been feasible to leave off
calling him Jackanapes and to get used to his baptismal name of
Theodore before the day after to-morrow (when the General was due), it
would have b