sing that a horse be given something to eat
occasionally. "_Si!_ Thot's thee preencipal t'ing! Then he's makin'
a fast goer--bet you' life! I haf give heem--" He suddenly interrupted
himself and laid firm hold upon the man's arm. "You coom wit' me!" he
invited, and began to drag the other toward the swing-doors. "You coom
look at thot _potrillo_!"

They went outside. On the curb, Felipe gazed about him, first with a
look of pride, then with an expression of blank dismay. He stepped down
off the curb, roused the drowsing mare with a vigorous clap, again
looked about him worriedly. After a long moment he left the team,
walking out into the middle of the street, and strained his eyes in both
directions. Then he returned and, heedless of his new overalls, got down
upon his knees, sweeping bleared eyes under the wagon. And finally, with
a last despairing gaze in every direction, he sat down upon the curb and
buried his face in his arms.

For the colt was gone!

CHAPTER IV

A NEW HOME

With the beginning of the forward movement across the railroad the colt,
ears cocked and eyes alert, moved across also. Close about him stepped
other horses, and over and around him surged a low murmuring,
occasionally broken by the crack of a whip. Yet these sounds did not
seem to disturb him. He trotted along, crossing the tracks, and when on
the opposite side set out straight down the avenue. The avenue was
broad, and in this widening area the congestion rapidly thinned, and
soon the colt was quite alone in the open. But he continued forward,
seeming not to miss his mother, until there suddenly loomed up beside
him a very fat and very matronly appearing horse. Then he hesitated,
turning apprehensive eyes upon her. But not for long. Evidently
accepting this horse as his mother, he fell in close beside her and
trotted along again in perfect composure.

Behind this horse was a phaeton, and in the phaeton sat two persons.
They were widely different in age. One was an elderly man, broad of
shoulders and with a ruddy face faintly threaded with purple; the other
was a young girl, not more than seventeen, his daughter, with a face
sweet and alert, and a mass of chestnut hair--all imparting a certain
esthetic beauty. Like the man, the girl was ruddy of complexion, though
hers was the bloom of youth, while his was toll taken from suns and
winds of the desert. The girl was the first to discover the colt.

"Daddy!" she exclaimed, placin