"Yes, he is. We've had him ever so long. His name's Lightning. What's your name?"
"Johnny Craddock; and I heard your mother call you Peter, when she said what she'd do if you went away from the gate before dinner was ready."
"That's only because we've just come. She won't be afraid about me after I get used to it."
"There's lots of nice boys around here. Me and Joe Somers and Put Medill and a whole crowd. Some of us have got horses. We've got four, but they belong to old Squire Potter, and he keeps 'em. Some day you may go with me and see 'em."
A clear ringing voice sounded across the village street just then: "Johnny!—Johnny Craddock!"
"Guess your mother wants you. It's dinner-time."
Johnny knew it, but he left a promise behind him, as he darted away, that he would come back after dinner and see Pete Burrows ride Lightning down to the river to water. The arrival of a new boy was a great event in Ridgeville, and his new neighbors were as eager to make his acquaintance as they had been shy about coming too near the house while the furniture was unloading and being carried in.
Johnny Craddock and two others were pretending to play jackstones in the grass near the big gate when Pete Burrows at last came out through the lane from the barn, with Lightning, at the end of a halter, behind him.
"Ain't he a big one?"
"He's blind of one eye."