the older
people gathered upon the piazza, Tzaritza bounding on ahead, their route
led them past the paddock where Shelby and old Jess, with several others
connected with the estate, stood watching them. Shelby as an old hand
and privileged character, took off his hat and waved it hilariously, as
he called out:

"Well _that_ is one sight worth while, Miss Peggy. We've got our _own_
girl back again, praises be!" while old Jess echoed his enthusiasm by
shouting:

"Praise de Lawd we _has_, an' we got de boss yander, too!"

"Sure thing, Shelby!" answered Durand.

"He's all right, Shelby!" cried Ralph.

"Nicest Daddy-Neil in the world," was Polly's merry reply, then added,
"Oh, Peggy, look at Roy! He's crazy to come with us," for Roy, the
little colt Peggy had raised, was now a splendid young creature though
still too young to put under the saddle.

Peggy looked toward the paddock where Roy was running to and fro in the
most excited manner and neighing loudly to his friends.

"Let him come, Shelby, please," she called, and the foreman opened the
gate. Roy darted through like a flash, giving way to all manner of mad
antics, rushing from one four-footed companion to another, with a
playful nip at one, a wild Highland-fling-of-a-kick at another, a
regular rowdy whinny at another, until he had the whole group infected,
but funniest of all, Jean Paul's mount, the staid, well-conducted old
Robin Adair, whose whole fifteen years upon the estate had been one long
testimony to exemplary behavior, promptly set about demonstrating that
when the usually well-ordered being does "cut loose" he "cuts loose for
fair."

Jean Paul was essentially a sailor-laddie, the direct descendant of many
sailor-laddies, and he was "built upon nautical lines," so said Ralph.
On the summer cruise just ended he had demonstrated his claim to be
classed among his sire's confreres, for let the ship pitch and toss as
it would, his legs never failed him, his stomach never rebelled and his
head remained as steady and clear as the ship's guiding planet.

But he found navigating upon land about as difficult as a duck usually
finds it, and was about as well qualified to bestride and ride a horse
as that waddling bird is. Consequently, he had "heaved aboard" his
mount with many well concealed misgivings, but up to the present moment
none of his friends had even suspected his very limited experience as a
horseman, but truth to tell, never before in his lif