"Because," said the pony, "you have never sung the song down here before." And then he added: "Don't you think, now that we are all here,[Page 571] you'd better sing the song right end first, and be done with it?"
"Oh, certainly!" cried Davie, "certainly!" beginning to sing.
If you could but have heard that song! As Davie sang, each fowl or animal took up its part, and sang it, with its own peculiar tone and manner, until they all joined in.
"I had a horse, and my horse pleased me;
I tied my horse behind a tree.
Horse said, 'Neigh! neigh!'
Dog said, 'Bow-wow!'
Duck said, 'Quack! quack!'
Guinea said, 'Pot-rack! pot-rack!'
Hen said, 'Shinny-shack! shinny-shack!'
Bird said, 'Fiddle-diddle-dee!'"
Davie was overjoyed. He thought he would sing it all over again. But just then he was sure that his mother called [him].
"Wait a minute!" he said to his companions. "Wait a minute! I'm coming back! Oh, it's just like a fairy-tale!" he cried to himself, as he bounded up the garden-walk. "I wonder what mother'll think?"
But his mother said she had not called him, and so he ran back as fast as his legs would carry him.
But they were all gone. His speller lay on the ground, open at the page of his lesson; a crumb or two of bread was scattered about; but not a sign of the white pony and the rest of the singers.
"Well," said Davie, as he picked up his book, "I guess I wont sing it again, for I bothered them so. But I wish they had stayed a little longer."