d, pointing to one of them, asked the boy
if he recognized it.

"Of course I do," answered Glen. "It's the one I rode yesterday."

"And the one I hope you will ride for many days to come," said the
captain with a smile; "for I want you to accept that pony as a present
from my little girl."

"Really?" cried the delighted boy; "do you really mean that I am to have
it for my very own?"

"I really do," laughed the captain, "and," he continued more soberly, "I
wish I could offer you something ten times more valuable, as a slight
memento of the service you rendered those so dear to me not long ago."

"You couldn't give me anything I should value more," exclaimed Glen,
"unless--" Here he hesitated, and his face flushed slightly.

"Unless what?" asked Captain Winn.

"Unless you could give me that Indian boy."

"What on earth would you do with him?" cried the captain, his eyes
opening wide with surprise at such an unheard-of request.

Then Glen unfolded a plan that had formed itself in his mind within a
few minutes; and, when he had finished, the captain's look of surprise
still remained on his face, but he said, reflectively:

"Well, I don't know but what it might be done, and if you succeed in
carrying out your part of the scheme, I will see what I can do with the
rest of it."

This matter being disposed of, Glen asked if he might try his pony.

"But you tried her yesterday," laughed the captain, who enjoyed the
boyishness of this boy as much as he admired his manliness.

"Yes, sir; but she wasn't mine then, and you know everything, even a
horse, is very different when it is your own."

"So it is, and you may try her to your heart's content, only don't ride
far from the post unless you wish for a repetition of your recent
experience."

With this the captain beckoned to a soldier, who stood near by, and
ordered him to saddle the bay mare, and to tell the stable-sergeant that
she belonged to this young gentleman, who was to take her whenever he
pleased. He also told Glen that the whole outfit of saddle, bridle, and
picket rope, then being placed on the mare, were included in his
present.

The mare was so well fed, and so thoroughly rested, that she was in high
spirits; and, the moment she found Glen on her back, tried her very best
to throw him off. She reared, and bucked, and plunged, and sprang
sideways, and kicked up her heels, to the great delight of a number of
soldiers who were witnesses of the performa