National Velvet Read Online Free Page A

had never insisted with her, but let her come down the way she had planned for herself by the chalk road. Now to Meredith’s mind came the desire to take Miss Ada the way she had never been taken by Edwina, Malvolia, Velvet or herself.
    Â Â Â Â  Even before the division of the ways the intention became communicated to the pony. A hardening took place, a clenching of spirit. A weight came into Miss Ada’s head. She hung it provocatively upon her bit. Meredith sat uneasily and watchfully in her saddle.
    Â Â Â Â  Miss Ada’s way was to the left. Meredith’s was to the right. Miss Ada had two methods of getting her way. Either she didn’t cede at all, or when Meredith pulledshe ceded too fast and whipped round. This method she chose and the saddle slipped over on the too-slack girths. Meredith fell off. Miss Ada with a look of sudden youth flicked her heels, cantered to the wire fence, stooped her head and cropped. The basket with the
Canary Breeder
had fallen too and Meredith, getting up, picked up her
Annual,
glanced at Miss Ada and after a minute sat down in the sun to read. She was now faced with a walk home. Nobody ever caught Miss Ada once she was loose. She would go home her own way and at her own time.
    Â Â Â Â  Meredith read comfortably what Mr. Lukie had to say, then closed her book and trudged off.
    Â Â Â Â  “You’ll look an idiot!” she said partingly to Miss Ada. “Coming home with your saddle all upside down.” The whites of Miss Ada’s eyes glinted as she cropped. Meredith went down towards the Dead-Horse-Patch. When she was out of sight Miss Ada moved off by the way she had intended to go.
    Â Â Â Â  Meredith ran down over a steep field that lay in shadow with its back to the rising sun, then up the opposite slope with the sun shining on her back. Over the rise she saw a rider in the distance nearing the haystack that stood at the edge of the cabbage field, the haystack where the legendary horse had laid down and died. The rider coming towards her, she could not see at first whether he was walking or trotting. . . . Then came a flick of movement and he was off. The horse as usual had shied at the Dead-Horse-Patch.
    Â Â Â Â  When Meredith reached him he was on his feet dustinghimself down, a tripper-rider, a great lad with loose flannel trousers and bicycle clips. The horse, like Miss Ada, was cropping feverishly as though it had never seen grass before.
    Â Â Â Â  “You got Mr. Belton’s Bumble Bee,” said Meredith.
    Â Â Â Â  “What’s the matter with him? Seen a ghost?” said the young man.
    Â Â Â Â  “Yes, he did,” said Meredith.
    Â Â Â Â  “Eh? How? You had a fall too?” eyeing the green-grass stain on her hip.
    Â Â Â Â  Meredith looked round to see if Miss Ada was in sight.
    Â Â Â Â  “Bin sliding,” she said.
    Â Â Â Â  “Can we catch the horse?” said the tripper.
    Â Â Â Â  “Maybe,” said Meredith, “but I shouldn’t think so. I got to be in time for school.”
    Â Â Â Â  “Jumped his whole length sideways,” said the tripper.
    Â Â Â Â  “They always do, here,” said Meredith, edging gently towards the horse.
    Â Â Â Â  “Why here?”
    Â Â Â Â  “There’s a ghost in the ground. A horse ghost. Steams up mornings and evenings. Specially early when there’s a dew drying off.” Her hand was within a foot of the reins, extended soothingly. The young man saw her intention and ran round the other side. The horse, startled, removed itself another length away.
    Â Â Â Â  “You mucked it,” said Meredith. “I must get on.”
    Â Â Â Â  Miss Ada got home first. Velvet was putting saltpetre on her girth-gall as she stood in the sunlight on the street by the front door. The saddle was pitched up on