“All right,” said the little boy. So he held out two lumps of sugar to the coal horse, and two to the grocery horse, and I just wish you could have seen how glad those horses were to get the sweet stuff. If they could have talked man language they would have thanked George and Mabel, but as it was they could only say to one another and to Tinkle:
“Well, you certainly have a good home with such nice children in it.”
“I’m glad you think so,” whinnied Tinkle to them, and he felt very happy.
George and Mabel drove home in their pony cart, carrying what was left of the bag of sugar. When they were near their home, and on a quiet street, George let his sister take the reins so she would learn how to handle them. Patrick watched the little girl carefully and told her how and when to pull, so Tinkle would go to the right or to the left, and also around the corners.
“Oh, Mother! now I know how to drive!” cried Mabel as she ran into the house to tell her father and Mrs. Farley about their first trip downtown in the new pony cart.
After that George and Mabel had many rides behind Tinkle, even in the Winter, when they hitched him to a little sled. The little pony grew to like his little boy and girl friends very much indeed, and they loved him dearly. They would hug him and pat him whenever they went out to the stable where he was, and feed him lumps of sugar. When Spring came they took long rides in the country.
One day a funny thing happened to Tinkle. He had been hitched to the pony cart which was tied to a post in front of the house, waiting for George and Mabel to come out. And then, from somewhere down the street sounded the tooting of a horn, and a queer odor, which made him tremble, came to the pony’s nostrils.
“I wonder what that is?” said Tinkle to himself. Very soon he found out.
Along came a man wearing a red cap, and every once in a while he would put a brass horn to his mouth and blow a tooting tune. But this was not what surprised Tinkle most. What did, was a big shaggy animal, that the man was leading by a chain. And when Tinkle saw the shaggy creature he was afraid. But the other animal, rising up on its hind legs said: