“All right,” declared Ralph, meekly accepting his fate, “but will you kindly tell me what a Thread and Needle Race is?”
“It is a very easy task, Ralph, compared with what Grace and I have undertaken,” Ruth assured him. “All you do, in the ‘Thread and Needle Race,’ is to ride across this field on horseback carrying a needle. Of course, the real burden is on the woman. It always is. Some fair one is waiting for you at the end of your ride; she must sew a button on your coat. The sooner she can accomplish this, the better; for back you must ride, again, to the starting place, with the button firmly attached to your coat.”
“Will you sew the button on for me, Mollie?” Ralph begged. He saw that Mollie was taking less part in the amusements than the other girls.
“Certainly!” agreed Mollie. “I accept your proffered honor. To tell you the truth, you stand a better chance of winning with my assistance. I am a much better seamstress than Bab.”
“Oh, Bab, will be busy winning the riding prize,” declared Ralph under his breath, smiling at his two friends, Mollie and Barbara.
Maud Warren, the New York girl famous for her skillful riding, was standing near them, talking with Reginald Latham. As she overheard Ralph’s remark, a sarcastic smile flitted across her pale face. She had ignored Bab since their introduction at the Ambassador’s; but the thought of this poor country girl’s really knowing how to ride horseback was too much for her.
Barbara caught Maud Warren’s look of amusement and blushed furiously. Then she turned to Ralph and said aloud, “Oh, I am not a rider when compared with Miss Warren.”
“I don’t believe in comparisons, Miss Thurston,” declared the Ambassador, who had walked up to them. “But I think you are an excellent horsewoman. And I much prefer your riding in the old-fashioned way with a side saddle. I have observed that it is now fashionable, in Lenox, for the young women to ride astride.”
“Girls,” Miss Stuart declared, “it is luncheon time. We must return to the hotel.”
“Now, does everybody understand about to-morrow?” asked Gwendolin Morton, when the last farewells had been said. “Remember, the Gymkana race is first. We started with this spectacle for fear the girls who have promised to take part might back out. Then, immediately after lunch, we shall have our horseback riding and jumping.”