“Oh, no, papa, really,” pleaded Cricket, “for he goes up so slowly, that now that I know what’s coming, I’m not a bit afraid, and he comes right straight down.”
However, papa would not consent to Cricket’s making a circus-rider of herself till she understood Mopsie a little better, so there were two or three weeks of riding within the grounds. At last there came a day when papa said that he thought Mopsie was now enough accustomed to a little girl’s riding him to go straight along the road.
It was the day after Fourth of July when the children took their first ride out into the country. Dr. Ward, mounted on his big gray horse, went with them for some distance, and then gave them permission to ride along the lake-road and so home, while he rode further on, on some business.
It was lovely riding along by the lake-road, where it was all cool and shady, on that hot morning. The edge of the road sloped rather steeply to the lake, but most of the way there was an old fence along there. In some places it was broken down. Now and then a fire-cracker in the distance made both ponies jump a little. Charcoal, especially, was very nervous about fire-crackers, for once some one had fired off a whole package right under his nose, and he had been dreadfully frightened.
Presently the little girls came to a place where some lovely, rare flowers were growing by the lake side, and Cricket jumped off her pony to get them. It was one of the places where the fence was broken down, so she slipped down the bank to pick the flowers, leaving Mopsie cropping a tuft of grass above.
As she did so, three small boys, who were in hiding in the bushes, suddenly jumped up and fired off a whole pack of crackers, flash! bang! right under Charcoal’s sensitive nose.
There was a scream from Eunice, Charcoal jumped sideways, and in a moment Charcoal, Mopsie and Eunice rolled down the steep bank, and were struggling in the water, while Cricket stood horrified on the bank. The water was very deep there, even close to the shore, and the force of the fall carried all three some distance out. Cricket and the very frightened small boys set up shriek after shriek, but the road was very lonely, and no houses were near. No one was in sight to render aid.
Charcoal was nearest the shore, and swam to the bank; he scrambled up like a dog, and stood shivering on the brink, much too frightened to do anything but stand still.
Here, in this strait, Mopsie’s circus-training came to the front. As he and Eunice both rose to the surface, she struggling and screaming, the knowing little pony caught her dress in his teeth, and began to swim slowly towards the shore with his burden. Fortunate, now, that he had learned to carry heavy things in his teeth like a dog. It was only a short distance he had to swim, and in a few minutes he was near enough for Cricket, steadying herself by an overhanging branch, to reach forward and help draw Eunice in. Mopsie scrambled up as Charcoal had done, and stood quietly shaking himself, like a big Newfoundland dog.
For a few minutes the children could do nothing but hug each other and cry. Then Cricket exclaimed, “Oh, you dear, darling old Mopsie! you saved my Eunice’s life,” and hugged her brave little pony tightly around its wet neck. Then Eunice put her dripping arms around it, too.