thing of the danger of it.

Splash went Rose into a pool of water! But worse than getting wet was
the fact that one of her ankles came in contact with a stone, and the
pain of the hurt made Rose scream aloud. Oh, that knock did so hurt the
little girl!

"Now! Now see what--what you've done!" cried Rose, when she could speak.
"You naughty, naughty Pinky!"

Pinky had snorted and run a few steps up the bank. Now he was grazing
contentedly--not trying to run away from the little girl at all, but
quite inconsiderate of her, just the same. He let Rose sit on the edge
of the brook, with her hurt foot in the water, crying as hard as she
could cry, and he acted as though he had no interest in Rose at all!

At least, he acted this way until he had got his fill of grass. Then he
trotted back to the brook for another drink. He did not come very near
Rose, who had crawled up out of the water and sat rocking herself too
and fro and nursing her hurt ankle. It was so badly wrenched that the
little girl could not bear her weight upon that foot. She had tried it
and found out "for sure."

Otherwise she might easily have caught Pinky, for the pony was tame
enough in spite of his being spirited. But she could not walk far enough
to catch the pony; and then she could not have jumped up into the
saddle.

Pinky got tired of looking at her, perhaps. Anyway, after drinking again
he wandered up from the brook and once more fell to grazing. But he was
not hungry now, and he remembered the corral at the ranch house.
Besides, something moved behind a clump of brush and startled him.

The pony threw up his head and snorted. His ears pointed forward and he
looked questioningly at the clump of brush. The creature behind the
bushes moved again, and at that Pinky dashed away, whistling his alarm.
Rose saw him go, but she could not stop him. And fortunately, for the
time being, she did not know what had frightened the pony and sent him
off at so quick a pace. He disappeared, and with his going it seemed to
Rose that her last thread of attachment to the big ranch house and Daddy
and Mother Bunker was broken.

When Pinky was out of sight and sound Rose stopped crying. In fact, she
stood up and did try to hobble a few steps after him. For Rose was wise
enough to see that the pony had probably started for home, and in that
same direction lay her best path too.

But she really could not limp far nor fast. The clumps of brush soon hid
the pony, as w