n Freddie. "Maybe it was a ghost."

"No, you must have been dreaming," said his mother. "Come, go to
sleep," and presently Freddie dropped off. Mrs. Bobbsey was much
worried, and the next day the older folks talked the matter over; but
nothing came of it.

CHAPTER XII

TOM'S RUNAWAY

"Tom Mason is going to bring his colt out this afternoon," said Harry
to Bert, "and we can all take turns trying him."

"Oh, is it that pretty little brown horse I saw in the field back of
Tom's home?" asked Bert.

"That's him," Harry replied. "Isn't he a beauty!"

"Yes, I would like first-rate to ride him, but young horses are awful
skittish, aren't they?"

"Sometimes, but this one is partly broken. At any rate, we wouldn't
have far to fall, for he is a little fellow," said Harry.

So the boys went down to Tom's home at the appointed time, and there
they met Jack Hopkins.

"We've made a track around the fields," Tom told his companions, "and
we will train him to run around the ring, for father thinks he may be a
race-horse some day, he's so swift."

"You may go first," the boys told him, "as he's your horse."

"All right!" Tom replied, making for the stake where Sable, the pony,
was tied. Sable marched along quietly enough and made no objections to
Tom getting on his back. There was no saddle, but just the bit in the
horse's mouth and attached to it a short piece of rein.

"Get app, Sable!" called Tom, snapping a small whip at the pony's side.

But instead of going forward the little horse tried to sit down!

"Whoa! whoa!" called the boys, but Tom clung to Sable's neck and held
on in spite of the pony's back being like a toboggan slide.

"Get off there, get off there!" urged Tom, yet the funny little animal
only backed down more.

"Light a match and set it under his nose," Harry suggested. "That's the
way to make a balky horse go!"

Someone had a match, which was lighted and put where Sable could sniff
the sulphur.

"Look out! Hold on, Tom!" yelled the boys all at once, for at that
instant Sable bolted off like a deer.

"He's running away!" called Bert, which was plain to be seen, for Tom
could neither turn him this way or that, but had all he could do to
hold on the frightened animal's neck.

"If he throws him Tom will surely be hurt!" Harry exclaimed, and the
boys ran as fast as they could across the field after the runaway.

"Whoa! whoa! whoa!" called everybody after the horse, but that made not
the slig