"Yes, but he's such a mad-headed animal—and those paths on the sides of the gullies are very steep."
"You sound like the nervous young woman in 'Excelsior,'" David Linton said, with a laugh. "Cheer up, my girl—there's no need to worry about Monarch and me. He's only playful; hasn't an atom of vice, and I know him very well by now. I never put my leg over a better horse."
"Oh, of course," said Norah, cheered, but not altogether convinced. "Every one knows he's a beauty—but just look out that he doesn't try to be too playful on the sidings, Daddy. It would be so easy to slip down."
"Not for anything with four good legs and a fair allowance of sense," said her father. "Do you think you could make Bobs slip down?"
Norah laughed.
"Oh, Bobs is like a mountain goat when it comes to sure-footedness," she said. "You've said yourself, Daddy that it would hardly be possible to THROW him down! But then, Bobs is Bobs, and he's seven years old, and ever so sensible—not like that big four-year-old baby. So promise me you'll be careful, Daddy."
"I will, little daughter." They were at the boundary fence now, and it was time for Norah to turn back. "Hurry home—I don't quite like you being so far afield by yourself."
"Oh, Bobs will look after me." Norah hugged her father so far as Monarch would permit—Mr. Linton had got off to wrestle with a stiff padlock on the seldom-used gate, and the black horse was pulling away, impatient of the delay.
"I expect he will," said the father. "That pony is almost as great a comfort to me as he is to you, I believe! Make haste home, all the same." He stood still a moment to watch the little white-coated figure and the handsome pony swinging across the plain at Bobs' long canter; his face tender as few people ever saw it. Then he mounted the eager Monarch, and rode off into the rough country that led to the ranges.
It was comparatively early, but already very hot. Norah was not sorry when she left the long stretch they called the "Far Plain" behind her, and came into the welcome shade of a belt of timber. She walked Bobs through it slowly. Then came the clear stretch to the homestead, and they cantered steadily across it.