So Salt found himself in the lap of luxury and one week of it so transformed him that at the end of it poor Pepper would hardly have known his mate.  Yet with all the care bestowed upon him the poor horse grieved for his mate, and never did hoof-beat fall upon the ground without his questioning neigh.

Peggy visited him every day and was touched by his response to her petting; it showed what Nelly had done for him.  But she was quick to understand the poor creature’s nervous watching for his lost mate, and evident loneliness.  At length she had him turned into the paddock with the other horses, but even this failed to console him.  He stood at the paling looking down the road, again and again neighing his call for the companion which failed to answer.  Peggy began to wonder what had become of Jim Bolivar.  Two more weeks passed.  Mrs. Harold and Polly had returned from Old Point and upon a beautiful April afternoon Polly and Peggy were out on the little training track where Polly, mounted upon Silver Star, was taking her first lesson in hurdles; a branch of her equestrian education which thus far had not been taken up.

Star was beautifully trained, and took the low hurdles like a lapwing, though it must be confessed that Polly felt as though her head had snapped off short the first time he rose and landed.

“My gracious, Peggy, do you nearly break your neck every time you take a fence?” she cried, settling her hat which had flopped down over her face.

“Not quite,” laughed Peggy, skimming over a five-barred hurdle as though it were five inches.  “But, oh, Polly, look at Salt!  Look at him!  He acts as though he’d gone crazy,” she cried, for the horse had come to the fence which divided his field from the track and was neighing and pawing in the most excited manner, now and again making feints of springing over.

“Why I believe he would jump if he only knew how,” answered Polly eagerly.

“And I believe he does know how already,” and Peggy slipped from Shashai to go to the fence.  Just then, however, the sound of an approaching vehicle caught her ears, and the next instant Salt was tearing away across the field like a wild thing, neighing loudly with every bound, and from the roadway came the answering neigh for which he had waited so long, and Pepper came plodding along, striving his best to hasten toward the call he knew and loved.  But Pepper had not been full-fed with oats, corn and bran-mashes, doctored by a skilled hand, or groomed by Jim Jarvis, as Salt had been for nearly four blissful weeks, and an empty stomach is a poor spur.  But he could come to the fence and rub noses with Salt, and Peggy and Polly nearly fell into each other’s arms with delight.

“Oh, doesn’t it make you just want to cry to see them?” said Polly, half tearfully.

“They shan’t be separated again,” was Peggy’s positive assertion.  “How do you do, Mr. Bolivar?  Why, Nelly, have you been ill?” for the girl looked almost too sick to sit up.