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Show 46 "That's a pretty horse. What's his name?" I told her and she looked at him again. "He's really pretty, Chess. He's a stallion, huh?" That she'd not only noticed but mentioned it didn't even throw me off. I happened to be wearing decent Levis, my clodhopper shoes didn't look so bad in stirrups, and I had another, newer hat, having refused to wear that old cast-off of Dad's after her visit earlier that summer. Mounted I had confidence, and I smiled down at her. "Where you going?" "Out to my brother's. Andy. He's renting a place from Frank Harris." "Where 'bouts?" "Ohh, it's about a mile on past Flannigans'. I wish Andy had some riding horses." "Did you used to ride when you lived out here?" "Sure. I miss it too." "We got some other horses you could ride. Wanta go for a ride now?" "I can't. I've got a skirt on anyhow." "Come on out sometime. We've got a buckskin mare you'd like." "I hope she's not too tame. I'd like to ride this one." "He don't like strangers too much. Hey, we've got a bay horse named Billy you could ride. After fifty yards he can outrun this one." "That's what I'd like," she said, and she was more than smiling. There was a kind of light in her eyes, an excitement that excited me. As she said it, she reached out a hand to touch Ace's nose, slowly like she should, but he turned away anyhow and started off. I pulled him up so sharply that he reared. He'd done that before, a little, and Dad had told me to stop letting him do it, that someday he'd go over backwards on me, but I was all confidence that afternoon and I not only let him go up, I helped |
