war, and ponies seem
particularly wanted in the summer. It's very difficult to get
riding-ponies."

"Glad I secured Lady," chuckled Diana.

"I think it's very mean of you to keep Lady all to yourself," retorted
Sadie, airing a grievance. "Why can't you let her be the second school
pony, and take your turn with the rest of us? It would be far fairer."

"Give up Lady? Well, I like that! Coolest idea I've ever heard! Why, I
thought of the whole thing, and wrote to Dad, and she was hired
specially for me. _Your_ riding lessons were only a copy of my idea. Get
a third pony if you can, but I guess I'm not going to give up Lady to
anybody. Why should I? Dad said she was to be mine."

"It's not sporty of you, though," grumbled Sadie. "You know perfectly
well we _can't_ get a third pony, and everybody in the school is saying
how hard it is for you to monopolize one entirely to yourself. There are
six other girls who'd be glad to learn riding if they could get a
mount."

"Then let them write home to their fathers to send them ponies."

"As if they could! But their fathers would let them take lessons if
there were a school pony for them. I know that for a fact."

"Well, they shan't have mine, at any rate," rapped out Diana defiantly.
"You just needn't think it, so there!"

One afternoon it was Wendy's turn for the school pony. She and Diana and
Miss Carr rode away together down the road to Chapelrigg. It was a
gloriously fine day. Wild roses starred the hedgerows, and the beautiful
blue speedwell bordered the lanes. Larks were singing, and, though the
cuckoo had changed his tune, blackbirds still fluted in the coppices.

They had come out on an errand--not a particularly romantic one, as it
happened, only to pay a bill for Miss Todd at a farm-house a few miles
away. If the errand was prosaic the farm and its surroundings looked
attractive; it stood on a hill with a beautiful group of birch-trees
behind it, and a small stream came rippling down at the bottom of the
garden. The path from the high road was blocked by a cart left standing
with a load of straw, so it would be impossible to ride the horses up to
the door. The three riders dismounted, and Miss Carr, tying Baron to the
fence, said she would walk up the lane and pay the bill while the girls
waited for her in the road. Allowing Lady and Topsy to crop the grass in
the hedge bottom, Diana and Wendy sat on the bank lazily enjoying
themselves. It was very pleasant th