PINKY GOES HOME
Rose had seen men digging and blasting at home in Pineville for the new
sewer system; so when the moving picture man had run back toward her and
Russ to warn them not to get into the field of the camera, Rose had
thought a charge of dynamite was about to be exploded.
Although the man who warned them did not wave a red flag, dynamite was
all Rose could think of. The appearance of the Indians on the hillside,
in any case, frightened her, and she was quite ready to yield to panic.
As we have seen, she twitched Pinky, the pony, around by his
bridle-rein, and the spirited pony proceeded to gallop away.
Rose did not pay any attention to where Pinky was going. And Pinky did
not remain on the trail by which the brother and sister had traveled
from Cowboy Jack's ranch.
Pinky was very anxious to go, but where he went he did not care. He
left the trail almost at once and cantered through a pasture where the
scattered clumps of brush and greasewood soon hid him and his rider from
the sight of anybody on the wagon-trail. At least, they were quite
hidden from Russ Bunker when he rode back to look for his sister.
Rose did not at first worry at all about where she was or where Pinky
was taking her. She listened for the expected "boom!" of the dynamite
explosion. But as minute after minute passed and the explosion did not
come, Rose began to wonder if she had made a mistake.
Pinky kept right on moving, just as though he knew where he was going
and wished to get there shortly. But when Rose looked around she knew
she had never been in this place before. And, too, she discovered that
Russ had not followed her.
This last discovery made Rose pull up the pony and think. It alarmed
her. She was not often frightened when Russ was by, although she had
given way to fright on this particular occasion. But she knew she would
not have been afraid had her brother been right here with her.
As it was, Rose was very much frightened indeed. She did not know where
Russ was, nor did she know where she was. Therefore it was positive that
she was lost!
Now, Pinky was a very intelligent pony, as was afterward proved. You
will read all about it later. But he could not know that Rose wished him
to find his way home unless she told him as much. And that Rose did not
do.
She just burst out crying, and the pony had no idea what that meant. He
turned to look at her, tossed his head and pawed with one dainty hoof.
But he did not understand of course that the girl on his back was crying
because she was lost and was afraid.
Perhaps, too, if Rose had let the bridle-reins alone Pinky would have
remembered the corral and his oats and have started back without being
told that the ranch house was the thing Rose Bunker most wanted to see.
But the little girl thought she had to guide the pony; so she grabbed up
the reins at last and said:
"Come up, Pinky! We have just got to go somewhere. Go on!"
Pinky naturally went on the way he was headed, and that chanced to be in
a direction away from Cowboy Jack's home, where the Bunkers were then
visiting. Nor did the pony bear her toward the place where the moving
picture company was at work.
They went on, and noon came, and both Pinky and the little girl were
hungry and thirsty.
Pinky smelled water--or saw it. He insisted on starting off to one side
of the narrow trail they had been following.
Rose was afraid to leave that trail, for it seemed to her that a path
along which people had ridden enough to make a deep rut in the sward
must be a path that was more or less used all the time. She expected to
meet somebody by sticking to this path, or else come to a house.
But here was a shallow stream, and Pinky insisted on trotting down to it
and wading right in.
The water was cool, and the pony cooled his feet in it as well as his
nose. He had jerked the reins out of Rose's hands when he had sunk his
nose in the water, and she had no way of controlling him.
"You bad, bad Pinky!" cried Rose, leaning down, clinging with one hand
to his mane and reached with the other hand to seize the reins. But she
could not reach them. She lost her stirrups. She slipped forward off the
saddle and upon the pony's neck.
At this Pinky was startled. He tried to scramble out of the brook. He
stepped on a stone that rolled. And then he staggered and half fell and
over his head and right into the middle of the brook flew Rose Bunker!
It was a most astonishing overturn, to say nothing of the danger of it.
Splash went Rose into a pool of water! But worse than getting wet was
the fact that one of her ankles came in contact with a stone, and the
pain of the hurt made Rose scream aloud. Oh, that knock did so hurt the
little girl!
"Now! Now see what--what you've done!" cried Rose, when she could speak.
"You naughty, naughty Pinky!"
Pinky had snorted and run a few steps up the bank. Now he was grazing
contentedly--not trying to run away from the little girl at all, but
quite inconsiderate of her, just the same. He let Rose sit on the edge
of the brook, with her hurt foot in the water, crying as hard as she
could cry, and he acted as though he had no interest in Rose at all!
At least, he acted this way until he had got his fill of grass. Then he
trotted back to the brook for another drink. He did not come very near
Rose, who had crawled up out of the water and sat rocking herself too
and fro and nursing her hurt ankle. It was so badly wrenched that the
little girl could not bear her weight upon that foot. She had tried it
and found out "for sure."
Otherwise she might easily have caught Pinky, for the pony was tame
enough in spite of his being spirited. But she could not walk far enough
to catch the pony; and then she could not have jumped up into the
saddle.
Pinky got tired of looking at her, perhaps. Anyway, after drinking again
he wandered up from the brook and once more fell to grazing. But he was
not hungry now, and he remembered the corral at the ranch house.
Besides, something moved behind a clump of brush and startled him.
The pony threw up his head and snorted. His ears pointed forward and he
looked questioningly at the clump of brush. The creature behind the
bushes moved again, and at that Pinky dashed away, whistling his alarm.
Rose saw him go, but she could not stop him. And fortunately, for the
time being, she did not know what had frightened the pony and sent him
off at so quick a pace. He disappeared, and with his going it seemed to
Rose that her last thread of attachment to the big ranch house and Daddy
and Mother Bunker was broken.
When Pinky was out of sight and sound Rose stopped crying. In fact, she
stood up and did try to hobble a few steps after him. For Rose was wise
enough to see that the pony had probably started for home, and in that
same direction lay her best path too.
But she really could not limp far nor fast. The clumps of brush soon hid
the pony, as we have said. And then poor Rose heard the same sound in
the scrub that Pinky had heard!
"Oh! what is that?" breathed the little girl.
She had not thought of any danger from wild animals before this time,
for it was broad daylight. And what this thing could be----
Then she caught a glimpse of it! It was of a sunburned yellow color, and
it slunk behind a bush and seemed to be crouching there, hiding, quite
as much afraid of Rose as Rose was of it. She saw its dusty tail
flattened out on the ground. But whether it was frightened or was
preparing to charge out upon her, the little Bunker girl could not tell
and was greatly terrified.
She was just as frightened, indeed, as all the people at Cowboy Jack's
ranch house were when Pinky, the runaway pony, cantered into view with
nobody on his back. Cowboy Jack and daddy were already mounted on
ponies, and Russ had refused to remain at home. He wanted to aid in the
search for Rose.
"I can show them just where we were when Rose turned back," he said to
Mother Bunker. "And then Cowboy Jack ought to be able to follow Rose."
"I hope so," agreed his mother.
Then she, as well as the little folks, shouted aloud at the appearance
of the cantering Pinky.
"He's thrown the girl off!" exclaimed the ranchman. "Or else she has
tumbled off. And it was some time ago, too. Come on, Charlie Bunker! I'm
going to get Black Bear and his Injuns to help us look for her."
"Oh, Mr. Scarbontiskil!" murmured Mrs. Bunker, "is there anything out
there in the wilderness to hurt her--by day?"
"Not a thing, Ma'am--not a thing bigger or savager than a jackrabbit,"
declared Cowboy Jack.
"But I wonder where the pony left her?" queried Mr. Bunker.
"Ask him, Daddy--ask him," urged Laddie eagerly. "He's an awful
intelligent pony."
Pinky had been halted before the group at the ranch house. Daddy Bunker
said again:
"I wonder if he could show us where he left Rose?"
And when he spoke Pinky began to nod his head up and down and paw with
one hoof. The children were delighted--even Russ.
"Oh! I believe he is trying to explain," Russ cried. "Ask him another
question, Daddy."
Mr. Bunker laughed rather grimly. "Let Vi ask the pony questions; she
can think of them faster than I can. Or let Laddie ask him a riddle.
There is no time to experiment with ponies now."
He and Cowboy Jack started away from the ranch house, and Russ, for fear
of being left behind, urged his pinto after them.
He felt very much frightened because of Rose's absence. And he felt,
too, as though it might be his fault, although none of the older people
had suggested such a thing. Still, Russ knew that he ought to be beside
his sister right now!