"Tom Mason is going to bring his colt out this afternoon," said Harry to Bert, "and we can all take turns trying him.""Oh, is it that pretty little brown horse I saw in the field back of Tom's home?" asked Bert.
"That's him," Harry replied. "Isn't he a beauty!""Yes, I would like first-rate to ride him, but young horses are awful skittish, aren't they?""Sometimes, but this one is partly broken. At any rate, we wouldn't have far to fall, for he is a little fellow," said Harry.
So the boys went down to Tom's home at the appointed time, and there they met Jack Hopkins.
"We've made a track around the fields," Tom told his companions, "and we will train him to run around the ring, for father thinks he may be a race- horse some day, he's so swift.""You may go first," the boys told him, "as he's your horse.""All right!" Tom replied, making for the stake where Sable, the pony, was tied. Sable marched along quietly enough and made no objections to Tom getting on his back. There was no saddle, but just the bit in the horse'smouth and attached to it a short piece of rein.
"Get app, Sable!" called Tom, snapping a small whip at the pony's side.
But instead of going forward the little horse tried to sit down!
"Whoa! whoa!" called the boys, but Tom clung to Sable's neck and held on in spite of the pony's back being like a toboggan slide.
"Get off there, get off there!" urged Tom, yet the funny little animal only backed down more.
"Light a match and set it under his nose," Harry suggested. "That's the way to make a balky horse go!"Someone had a match, which was lighted and put where Sable could sniff the sulphur.
"Look out! Hold on, Tom!" yelled the boys all at once, for at that instant Sable bolted off like a deer.
"He's running away!" called Bert, which was plain to be seen, for Tom could neither turn him this way or that, but had all he could do to hold on the frightened animal's neck.
"If he throws him Tom will surely be hurt!" Harry exclaimed, and the boys ran as fast as they could across the field after the runaway.
"Whoa! whoa ! whoa!" called everybody after the horse, but that made not the slightest difference to Sable, who just went as if the woods were afire. Suddenly he turned and dashed straight up a big hill and over into a neighbor's cornfield.
"Oh, mercy!" cried Harry, "those people are so mean about their garden, they'll have Tom arrested if there's any corn broken."Of course it was impossible for a runaway horse to go through a field of corn and do no damage, and Tom realized this too. By this time the dogs were out barking furiously, and altogether there was wild excitement. At one and of the field there was a high board fence.
"If I could only get him there he would have to stop," thought Tom, and suddenly he gave Sable a jerk in that direction.
"Drop off, Tom, drop off!" yelled the boys. "He'll throw you against the fence!"But at that minute the little horse threw himself against the boards in such a way that Tom slid off, yet held tightly to the reins.
The horse fell, quite exhausted.
As quickly as they could get there the boys came up to help Tom. "Hurry!" said Harry, "there is scarcely any corn broken, and we can getawaybefore the Trimbles see us.They're away back in the fields planting latecabbage."Tom felt hardly able to walk, but he limped along while Harry led Sable carefully between the cornhills. It was only a few feet to the edge of thefield, and then they were all safe on the road again.
"Are you hurt?" the boys asked Tom, when finally they had a chance to speak about the runaway.
"I feel as if I had dropped from a balloon onto a lot of cobblestones,"Tomanswered, "but I guess that's only the shaking up I got.That pony certainly can go.""Yes indeed," Harry admitted; "I guess he doesn't like the smell of sulphur matches. Lucky he was not injured with that fall against the fence.""I found I had to throw him," Tom said, "and I thought the fence was softer than a tree.""I suppose we ought to make him run until he is played out," said Bert, "That's the way to cure a horse of running away."But none of the boys felt like risking their bones even to cure Sable, so the panting animal was led to the stable and for the rest of the day allowed to think over his bad conduct.
But that was not the last of the runaway, for in the evening just after supper old Mr. Trimble paid a visit to Tom's father.
