The car stopped almost beside the buggy, and one of the boys in the car roared with laughter at Barbara’s appearance, but the friend nearest him gave a warning prod.
“Hold on there!” called the first young man. “Where are you dragging this young lady against her will?”
“She’s a hoss thief!” said the old man sullenly.
“I am no such thing,” answered Barbara indignantly. Then, without any warning, Barbara threw back her head and laughed until the tears ran down her cheeks, mingling with the rain. It was absurdly funny, she sitting backwards on an old horse, one hand in his mane, and the farmer pulling them along with a rope. What must she look like to these boys? Barbara saw they were gentlemen, and knew she had nothing more to fear.
“Do please listen, while I tell my story. I am not a horse thief! I’ve some friends up the road, stuck in the mud with a broken tire in their automobile. I saw this old horse in the farm-yard, and I borrowed or rented him, and started for help. The old man wouldn’t let me explain. Won’t you,” she looked appealingly at the four boys in their motor car, “please go back and help my friends?”
“Every man of us!” uttered one of the young fellows, springing up in his car. “And we’ll drag this old tartar behind us with his own rope! We’ll buy your old horse from you, if this young lady wants him as a souvenir.”
It was the farmer’s turn to be frightened.
“I am sure I beg your pardon, miss,” he said, humbly enough now. His wife was in tears.
“Oh, never mind him,” urged Barbara. “Please go on back as fast as you can to my friends. You’ll find them up the lane to the left. I’ll ride the old horse back to the farm, and settle things and join you later.”
“Excuse me, Miss Paul Revere,” disputed a tall, dark boy with a pair of laughing blue eyes that made him oddly handsome, “you’ll do no such thing. Kindly turn over that fiery steed to me, take my seat in the car and show these knights-errant the way to the ladies in distress. I want to prove to you that a fellow can ride bareback as well as a girl can.”