THE DESERT AND THE ROSE 147 



to the house with the big bundle and went in to 

 summon aid. When I came out a sad spectacle 

 greeted my eyes. I had forgotten Nina, loose on 

 the ranch, and that colts are more mischievous than 

 puppies. The bundle had been twirled out of the 

 buggy, shaken violently until it burst open, and all 

 around, in field and orchard, lay once snowy gar- 

 ments, and far in the distance swept at high speed 

 the very incarnation of deviltry, worrying in her 

 teeth my Sunday-go-to-meeting white dress! And 

 the worst sting of all was that colts cannot be chas- 

 tened as pups are chastened ! One must bear one's 

 griefs in silence. Preventive measures — more 

 easily named than applied — are the sole resource. 



Nina started out in life with the manifest inten- 

 tion of keeping herself in the limelight. As a two 

 day old baby she squeezed out of the shed inhabited 

 by herself and mother, and contrived to suspend 

 her small person across a barbed wire fence. The 

 hour was midnight, and but for the lamentations 

 of the forsaken mother the occupants of the 

 house would have remained in ignorance of the 

 tragedy. But on a ranch watchfulness is a good 

 working quality, good ears in particular, so Nina 

 was rescued without injury to any part of her ex- 

 cept her dignity, being hoisted up under a woman's 

 arm and restored where she belonged. This sum- 

 mary procedure was resorted to quite often during 

 the first weeks of this abnormally mischievous little 

 creature's existence. Of all the colts, she took the 

 cake in more senses than one. She took a veritable 

 delight in foiling us. Heedless of her mother's 



