THE FIRST LESSON
“Now don’t be frightened when the horse looks at you,” Ricky advised
Janet patronizingly as the five Adventure Girls with Ricky and Gloria
walked to the new stables to meet the other two members of the class and
their instructor.
“The horse will probably be frightened when Janet looks at it,” Carol
giggled shamelessly.
Janet favored them both with a look of utter disgust and settled her hat
at a more rakish angle.
At the stables the girls found the two grooms with saddled mounts ready
and waiting. Their instructor was already mounted. Several upper
classmen had come down to watch the Freshmen get their first
instructions. Among them was Marcia Marlette and Gale thanked her lucky
stars that she knew something about riding. She would not look foolish
before Marcia. The other two members of the class arrived and the girls
took the reins of their mounts.
“Just watch me,” Ricky whispered to Janet. “I’ll show you how to mount.”
Janet murmured something under her breath which Ricky innocently did not
hear. Ricky swung into the saddle with the easy familiarity of being
used to horses. Janet followed suit.
“Excellent!” Ricky applauded. “It almost looked as though you had done
it before.”
“I’m crazy about the merry-go-round,” Janet explained, coughing away a
giggle. “What do we do now?”
“Get the correct hold on the reins,” Ricky instructed.
With the most guileless of expressions Carol and Janet, especially, went
through the pantomimes of beginners. The upper classmen spectators were
getting a lot of enjoyment out of the scene.
The horses were spirited mounts but easily handled by the girls. At last
the instructions were beginning to pall upon Carol and Janet. They
didn’t like the leisurely pace they were forced to maintain for the
class as a unit. When they came to an open stretch in the road Carol and
Janet urged their horses alongside the instructor. They talked in low
tones for several minutes; finally she nodded smilingly.
“Yipee!” Janet cheered. “Now, Ricky, we’ll show you some riding!”
Side by side Janet and Carol spurred their horses on. The mounts, fresh
and eager, galloped away sending up a cloud of dust in their wake. Ricky
watched the two girls in amazement.
“Where did they learn to ride like that?” she gasped to Valerie.
“On the western plains,” Valerie laughed. “We spent a summer there.
Janet has been bursting to show you.”
“Look at them go!” Gloria cried. “They really are good.”
“On flat roads, yes,” Madge smiled. “Let them come to a jump—and watch
out.”
“Let’s catch them,” Gale proposed.
An acquiescent nod from the instructor with a word of caution, and the
Adventure Girls with Ricky were off in pursuit of their friends.
Carol and Janet were racing neck and neck down the road. They were
trying recklessly to outrun one another. Their horses seemed to enter
into the spirit of the occasion and raced ahead. The girls bent low in
the saddles. They had not had so much fun since they were in Arizona.
“Race you to the old mill,” Janet shouted.
“Be there ahead of you,” retorted Carol.
Around a bend in the road ahead there was an old deserted water mill.
Its water wheel was still now and the stream from which it had once
secured current was a mere trickle of water through the woods. The girls
had discovered the old mill on one of their jaunts about the
countryside. Now Janet and Carol decided it would be a good spot at
which to bring to a close their race.
“They must be heading for the old mill,” Valerie cried to Gale as they
followed their friends’ trail of dust.
Ricky reined in her horse. “Girls, I, was there yesterday,” she said
excitedly. “There is a big oak tree down across the road. If they don’t
see it and jump——”
“Come on.” Gale spurred her horse on anew.
She and the others could picture what might happen. Janet and Carol
coming around the bend suddenly, totally unprepared for the tree across
the road, might have a bad fall. If their horses did not make the jump
there would most certainly be an accident. Even if their horses did
clear the tree that did not say the girls would. They needed plenty of
time to prepare for a jump and time to think of what to do. Horsemanship
was not as instinctive with them yet as with Ricky. She could have
cleared the jump without hesitating, but not so the other two Freshmen.
Carol, her head down, whispering encouragingly to her horse, felt that
she was having the most marvelous time of her college term. She had
always loved thoroughbred horses. Inch by inch her mount pulled ahead of
Janet. Gleefully she observed that at this rate she would win the race.
They were rounding the bend of the road. Not much farther to go! Carol
glanced over her shoulder at Janet. Her friend was gesticulating wildly
and endeavoring to rein in her horse. Carol mistook her friend’s
gestures for enthusiasm and waved in return.
“Look out, Carol!” Janet shouted. “The tree! Jump!”
Janet saw her friend turn. Carol’s horse was almost upon the huge trunk
of an oak tree lying directly across the road. Carol stiffened, then
bent forward on her horse’s neck. Together, in marvelously graceful
form, Carol’s mount carried both himself and his rider over the fallen
tree successfully.
However, Janet, surprised at the appearance of the tree and in her
effort to warn Carol, had neglected to check her own mount. He raced
ahead. Now it was too late to stop him.
The pursuing girls rounded the bend. Their horses raised a cloud of dust
as they were brought to an abrupt halt by their riders.
“Janet!” Madge screamed.
The girls saw Janet’s horse try to take the jump. He rose into the air
but with an inexperienced rider his jump was not successful. His hind
feet caught on the trunk, throwing both him and his rider heavily to the
ground. The horse scrambled to his feet, leaving his rider prostrate on
the ground.
Carol was off her mount in the twinkling of an eye. The other girls
scrambled over or walked around the fallen tree which had caused the
accident.
“Are you all right, Jan?” Carol asked anxiously.
Janet ruefully inspected herself. “I guess I’m all here,” she
acknowledged.
“I should have warned you about that tree,” Ricky said. “You’re really a
good rider,” she added.
“Of course, ow—oooo—ouch!” With mingled exclamations Janet managed to
get to her feet with Carol’s help. “And I wanted to show off!” she
giggled. “How did the horse make out?”
“He is all right,” Valerie said.
“We got our signals mixed,” Janet continued laughingly. “He saw a green
light and I a red one.”
“How are we going to get the horses back over the fallen tree?” Carol
asked. “I don’t care to jump mine again.”
“I’ll jump them for you,” Ricky said promptly.
The girls rode back to their instructor and the other girls. At the
stables they dismounted again and watched while their horses were
trotted away to their stalls.
In the sunset they limped toward their dormitories—Janet by far the
most exhausted.
“I think I’ll take a pillow the next time,” she declared. “Then if the
horse and I decide to separate I will have something soft to land on.”
“The object is not to separate,” Carol informed her. “Do you want to go
riding tomorrow, Janet?”
“Riding!” Janet echoed distastefully. “I am not on speaking terms with
my horse. No more riding for me this week! Tomorrow I shall go in for
something gentle like baseball.”
Carol laughed. “Baseball! You can’t come within five feet of the ball
with your bat.”
“Woe is me,” Janet said, gently depositing herself upon the dormitory
steps. “Do I have to prove everything? Come to the athletic field
tomorrow and I’ll show you I can hit a home run.”
Carol laughed derisively.
“I can, too,” Janet insisted. “I hit you, don’t I, when I throw a book
at you?”
“Except when I duck and it goes through the window,” reminded Carol.
“Don’t sit there,” Madge prodded Janet firmly. “We have to dress for
dinner.”
“And we have to get back to Happiness House,” added Gale to Ricky and
Gloria, but making no movement toward home.
“Isn’t spring the most glorious time of the year,” sighed Valerie. “When
the grass is growing, the buds budding——”
“And the brooks brooking,” Carol finished. “Come along,” she urged
Janet. “We have to dress and I’m hungry.”
“I will be black and blue tomorrow,” Janet prophesied gloomily. “My
chagrin is mountainous. To think I had to fall off when we were going so
good.”
“Console yourself,” Valerie soothed. “We shall probably all fall off
sooner or later.”
“I will live in hopes,” Janet said brightly. “What are we going to do
tonight?” she asked.
“I am going to study my history,” Valerie said firmly. “Spring exams are
just around the corner and I find my knowledge of dates strangely lax.”
“Me for my geometry,” Ricky said sorrowfully.
It developed that all the girls had more or less studying to do for the
spring finals. Gradually they separated, Janet and Carol to drift
upstairs to dress for dinner, Madge and Valerie to follow more
leisurely. Gale walked to the sorority house with Ricky and Gloria. They
separated only to meet again at dinner. Afterward Gale went off alone to
the solitude of her room to study. She would be glad to have Phyllis
back with her again.