Sancho seemed to share the longing, for he kept running off a little way and stopping to frisk and bark, then rushed back to sit watching his master with those intelligent eyes of his, which seemed to say, “Come on, Ben, let us scamper down this pleasant road and never stop till we are tired.”  Swallows darted by, white clouds fled before the balmy west wind, a squirrel ran along the wall, and all things seemed to echo the boy’s desire to leave toil behind and roam away as care-free as they.  One thing restrained him,—­the thought of his seeming ingratitude to good Mrs. Moss, and the disappointment of the little girls at the loss of their two new play-fellows.  While he paused to think of this, something happened which kept him from doing what he would have been sure to regret afterward.

Horses had always been his best friends, and one came trotting up to help him now, though he did not know how much he owed it till long after.  Just in the act of swinging himself over the bars to take a short cut across the fields, the sound of approaching hoofs, unaccompanied by the roll of wheels, caught his ear, and pausing, he watched eagerly to see who was coming at such a pace.

At the turn of the road, however, the quick trot stopped, and in a moment a lady on a bay mare came pacing slowly into sight,—­a young and pretty lady, all in dark blue, with a bunch of dandelions like yellow stars in her button-hole, and a silver-handled whip hanging from the pommel of her saddle, evidently more for ornament than use.  The handsome mare limped a little and shook her head as if something plagued her, while her mistress leaned down to see what was the matter, saying, as if she expected an answer of some sort: 

“Now, Chevalita, if you have got a stone in your foot, I shall have to get off and take it out.  Why don’t you look where you step and save me all this trouble?”

“I’ll look for you, ma’am; I’d like to!” said an eager voice so unexpectedly that both horse and rider started as a boy came down the bank with a jump.

“I wish you would.  You need not be afraid; Lita is as gentle as a lamb,” answered the young lady, smiling, as if amused by the boy’s earnestness.

“She’s a beauty, anyway,” muttered Ben, lifting one foot after another till he found the stone, and with some trouble got it out.

“That was nicely done, and I’m much obliged.  Can you tell me if that cross-road leads to the Elms?” asked the lady, as she went slowly on with Ben beside her.

“No, ma’am; I’m new in these parts, and I only know where Squire Allen and Mrs. Moss live.”

“I want to see both of them, so suppose you show me the way.  I was here long ago, and thought I should remember how to find the old house with the elm avenue and the big gate, but I don’t.”

“I know it; they call that place the Laylocks now, ’cause there’s a hedge of ’em all down the path and front wall.  It’s a real pretty place; Bab and Betty play there, and so do I.”