past the stalls, and finally set out and made his way to the far end. In the stall next the last stood a brown saddle-horse, and in the last stall the matronly horse he had followed out from town. But he showed no interest in these, bestowing upon each merely a passing glance. Then, discovering that the flies bothered him here more than in the corral, he walked back to the door and out into the sunlight again. In the corral he took up his motionless stand in the corner nearest the house.

He did not stand thus for long. He soon revealed grave uneasiness. It was due to a familiar gnawing inside. He knew the relief for this, and promptly set out in search of his mother. He hurried back along the fence, gained the door of the stable, and stepped into the stable, this time upon urgent business. He trotted down past the stalls to the family horse, and without hesitation stepped in alongside of her. Directly there was a shrill nicker, a lightning flash of heels, and the colt lay sprawling on the stable floor.

Never was there a colt more astonished than this one. Dazed, trembling, he regained his feet and looked at the mare, looked hard. Then casting solicitous eyes in the direction of the saddle-horse, he stepped in alongside. But here he met with even more painful objections. The horse reached around and bit him sharply in the neck. It hurt, hurt awfully, but he persisted, only to receive another sharp bite, this time more savage. Sounding a baby whimper of despair, he ran back to the door and out into the motherless corral.

He made for the corner nearest the house. But he did not stand still. He cocked his ears, pawed the ground, turned again and again, swallowed frequently. And presently he set out once more in search of his mother; though this time he wisely kept out of the stable. He held close to the fence, following it around and around, pausing now and again with eyes strained between the boards. But he could not find his mother. Finally, resorting to the one effort left to him that might bring result, he flung up his little head and sounded a piteous call–not once, but many times.

“Aunty,” declared the girl, rushing into the genial presence of the Mexican cook, “what shall I do about that colt? He must be hungry!”

The old woman nodded and smiled knowingly. Then she stepped into the pantry. She filled a long-necked bottle with milk and sugar and a dash of lime-water, and, placing the bottle in the girl’s hands, shoved her gently out the door and into the patio.

Racing across to the corral, Helen reached the colt with much-needed aid. He closed upon the bottle with an eagerness that seemed to tell he had known no other method of feeding. Also, he clung to it till the last drop was gone, which caused Helen to wonder when last the colt had fed. Then, as if by way of reward for this kindly attention, he tossed his head suddenly, striking the bottle out of her hands. This was play; and Helen, girlishly delighted, sprang toward him. He leaped away, however, and, coming to a stand at a safe distance, wriggled his ears at her mischievously. She sprang toward him again; but again he darted away. Whereupon she raced after him, pursuing him around the inclosure, the colt frisking before her, kicking up his heels and nickering shrilly, until, through breathlessness, she was forced to stop. Then the colt stopped, and after a time, having regarded her steadfastly, invitingly, he seemed to understand, for he quietly approached her. As he came close she stooped before him.

“Honey dear,” she began, eyes on a level with his own, “they have telephoned the city officials, and your case will be advertised to-morrow in the papers. But I do wish that I could keep you.” She peered into his slow-blinking eyes thoughtfully. “Brownie–my saddle-horse–is all stable-ridden, and I need a good saddler. And some day you would be grown, and I could–could take lots of comfort with you.” She was silent. “Anyway,” she concluded, rising and stroking him absently, “we’ll see. Though I hope–and I know it isn’t a bit right–that nothing comes of the advertisement; or, if something does come of it, that your rightful owner will prove willing to sell you after a time.” With this she picked up the bottle and left him.

And nothing did come of the advertisement. Felipe did not read the papers, and his knowledge of city affairs was such that he did not set up intelligent quest for the colt.

So the colt remained in the Richards’ corral. Regularly two and three times a day the girl came to feed him, and regularly as his reward each time he bunted the bottle out of her hand afterward. Also, between meals she spent much time in his society, and on these occasions relieved the tedium of his diet with loaf sugar, and, after a while, quartered apples. For these sweets he soon developed a passion, and he would watch her comings with a feverish anxiety that always brought a smile to her ready lips. And thus began, and thus went on, their friendship, a friendship that with the passing months ripened into strongest attachment, but which presently was to be interrupted for a long time.

Hint of this came to him gradually. From spending long periods with him every day his mistress, after each feeding now, took to hurrying away from him. Sometimes, so great was her haste to get back to the house, she actually ran out of the corral. It worried him, and he would follow her to the gate, and there stand with nose between the boards and eyes turned after her, whimpering softly. And finally, with his bottle displaced by more solid food, and the visits of his mistress becoming less frequent, he awoke to certain mysterious arrivals and departures in a buggy of a sharp-eyed woman all in black, and he came to feel, by reason of his super-animal instinct, that something of a very grave nature was about to happen to him. Then one morning late in August he experienced that which made his fears positive convictions, though precisely what it was he did not immediately know.

His mistress stepped into the corral with her usual briskness, and, walking deliberately past him, turned up an empty box in a far corner and sat down upon it, and called to him. From the instant of her entrance he had held himself back, but when she called him he rushed eagerly to her side. She placed her arms around his neck, drew his head down into her lap, and proceeded to unfold a story–later, tearful.

“It’s all settled,” she began, with a restful sigh. “We have discussed it for weeks, and I’ve had a dreadful time of it, and aunty–my Mexican aunty, you know–and my other aunty, my regular aunty–I have no mother–and everybody–got so excited I didn’t really know them for my own, and daddy flared up a little, and–and–” She paused and sighed again. “But finally they let me have my own way about it–though daddy called it ‘infant tommyrot’–and so here it is!” She tilted up his head and looked into his eyes. “You, sir,” she then went on–“you, sir, from this day and date–I reckon that is how daddy would say it–you, sir, from this day and date shall be known as Pat. Your name, sir, is Pat–P-a-t–Pat! I don’t know whether you like it or not, of course! But I do know that I like it, and under the circumstances I reckon that’s all that is necessary.” Then came the tears. “But that isn’t all, Pat dear,” she went on, tenderly. “I have something else to tell you, though it hurts dreadfully for me to do it. But–but I’m going away to school. I’m going East, to be gone a long time. I want to go, though,” she added, gazing soberly into his eyes; “yet I am afraid to leave you alone with Miguel. Miguel doesn’t like to have you around, and I know it, and I am