“Go get it!” called Patrick, letting loose the halter strap he had been holding. “Go get the sugar, Tinkle.”
Instead of jumping across the stick, as they wanted him to do, Tinkle walked right against it and knocked it off the boxes.
“That won’t do!” cried Patrick. “Don’t give him the sugar, Master George, until he jumps over the stick.”
So George held the sugar behind his back, and Tinkle was quite disappointed at not getting it.
“I wonder what they want me to do, and why they put that stick in front of me?” thought the little pony. Patrick placed the stick back on the boxes, and this time he nailed it fast so the pony could not easily knock it off. Then the coachman held the pony as before and George put the lumps of sugar out on his hand again.
Once more Tinkle walked forward to get them, but this time he could not knock the stick down with his legs. He shoved the boxes aside, though, and again Patrick led him back.
“Jump over the stick, Tinkle! Jump over the stick and I’ll give you the sugar!” called George. And then, after two or three more times, Tinkle understood. He found that stick always in his way when he wanted to get the sweet sugar, and finally he thought of the fence he had once jumped over.
“I guess that’s what they want me to do now!” he said. And with a jump, over the stick he went. Tinkle had done his first trick!