Twinkleheels trotted proudly behind the buggy in which the old horse
Ebenezer was pulling Johnnie Green and his father towards the village.
Once Twinkleheels would have chafed at having to suit his pace to
Ebenezer's. He would have thought Ebenezer's gait too slow. But ever
since Ebenezer won a race with him in the pasture Twinkleheels had
thought more highly of his elderly friend. He knew that if Ebenezer
chose to take his time it wasn't because he couldn't have hurried had he
cared to.
They reached the blacksmith shop at last, where Ebenezer and
Twinkleheels were to get new shoes. Having been there many a time
before, Ebenezer was quite calm. Twinkleheels, however, was somewhat
uneasy. He had never visited a smithy. And he looked with wide, staring
eyes at the low, dingy building. On the threshold he drew back, as he
sniffed odors that were strange to him.
Johnnie Green spoke to him and urged him forward.
"I'll wait for Ebenezer," Twinkleheels decided. And he wouldn't budge
until Farmer Green led the old horse into the smithy. Then Twinkleheels
followed.
"Goodness!" he cried to Ebenezer a moment later. "This place is afire.
Let's get outside at once!" He had caught sight of a sort of flaming
table against one of the walls.
"Don't be alarmed!" Ebenezer said. "That's only the forge. That's where
the blacksmith heats the shoes red hot, so he can pound them into the
proper shape to fit the feet."
Twinkleheels had trembled with fear. And now he had scarcely recovered
from his fright when a terrible clanging clatter startled him. He
snorted and pulled back. He would have run out of the smithy had not
Johnnie Green tied his halter rope to a ring in the wall.
"Don't do that!" the old horse Ebenezer called to him. "There's no
danger. That noise is nothing to be afraid of. It's only the smith
pounding a horseshoe on his anvil."
Twinkleheels looked relieved--and just a bit sheepish.
"I'm glad you came with me," he said, "I'd have been frightened if
you--." A queer hiss made Twinkleheels forget what he was saying.
"What's that?" he cried. "Is there a goose hidden somewhere in the
smithy?"
"No! The smith put the hot shoe into a tub of water, to cool," Ebenezer
explained. He couldn't help smiling a bit.
A scrubby looking white mare who was being shod turned her head and
stared at Ebenezer and his small companion.
"It's easy to see," she exclaimed, "that that colt has never been in a
smithy before. In my opinion he ought to be at home with his mother.
This is no place for children."
Before Ebenezer could answer her, Twinkleheels himself spoke up sharply.
"I don't know who you are, madam," he snapped. "But I'd like you to
understand that I'm no colt. I'm a pony. And I must say that I think you
owe me an apology."