"Then will you ask her and see about it, if you please, Mr. Van Brunt! I'd rather you would. And you won't have him put to plough or anything, will you, Mr. Van Brunt? Miss Sophia says it would spoil him."
"I'll plough myself first," said Mr. Van Brunt, with his half- smile; "there shan't be a hair of his coat turned the wrong way. I'll see to him as if he was a prince."
"Oh, thank you, dear Mr. Van Brunt! How good you are! Then I shall not speak about him at all till you do, remember. I am very much obliged to you, Mr. Van Brunt!"
Ellen ran in. She got a chiding for her long stay, but it fell upon ears that could not hear. The Brownie came like a shield between her and all trouble. She smiled at her aunt's hard words as if they had been sugar-plums. And her sleep that night might have been prairie land, for the multitude of horses of all sorts that chased through it.
"Have you heerd the news?" said Mr. Van Brunt, when he had got his second cup of coffee at breakfast next morning.
"No," said Miss Fortune. "What news?"
"There ain't as much news as there used to be when I was young," said the old lady; "seems to me I don't hear nothing now-a-days."
"You might if you'd keep your ears open, mother. What news,
Mr. Van Brunt?"
"Why, here's Ellen's got a splendid little horse sent her a present from some of her great friends Mr. Marshchalk"
"Mr. Marshman," said Ellen.