ressed close and asked for sweets,
nuzzling her coat-sweater persistently. But she stepped away. Whereupon
he reached his neck after her, and became almost savage in his coaxing.
Finally he was relieved to see her burst into a peal of laughter.

"Here!" she said, and held out both hands. "I don't care if your head is
broken!"

Glory be! Two red apples in one hand; a whole handful of loaf sugar in
the other! If ever a horse smiled, he smiled then. Also, he promptly
accepted some of the sugar, and, enjoying every delicious mouthful,
reached for an apple. But she drew back. Evidently she was not yet
finished with her reprimand.

"Blissfully unconscious of your behavior that morning, aren't you?" she
continued. "Not a bit ashamed; not one speck regretful!"

Well--he wasn't. He was not a bit ashamed, not one speck regretful.
Merely, he was sweet-hungry. And now that the sugar was gone, he wanted
one of those apples mightily. Finally she gave him one, and then the
other, feeding them to him rapidly, but not more rapidly than he wanted
them. Then she spoke again.

"Pat dear," she said, her voice undergoing change, "I'm troubled. I am
foolish, I know. But I can't help it. I advised that very nice young man
to ride every morning. And he may do it. But if he does, sooner or
later, perhaps the very first morning, we shall meet up there on the
mesa. I want that, of course; but for reasons best known to Easterners,
I don't want it--not yet." She gazed off toward the mountains. "I
reckon, Pat dear," she concluded, after a moment, turning her eyes back
to him, "we'd better ride in the afternoons for a time. Yet the
afternoons are so uncomfortably hot. Oh, dear! What shall I do?"

But the horse did not answer her. All he did was stand very still, eyes
blinking slowly, seemingly aware of the gravity of the situation, yet
unable to help her. Indeed, that her serious demeanor had struck a note
of sympathy within him he presently revealed by once more pressing very
close to her--this in the face of the fact that she had no more sweets
with her and he could see that she had no more. The movement forced her
back, and evidently he perceived his mistake, for he quickly retraced
one step. Then he fell to regarding her with curious intentness, his
head twisting slowly in a vertical plane, much as a dog regards his
master, until, evidently finding this plane of vision becoming awkward,
he stopped. After which Helen playfully seized his ears