Tinkle, the Trick Pony: His Many Adventures

Tinkle stopped nibbling the sweet, green grass of the meadow, blew a long breath from his nose, raised his head and looked around. Then he blinked his eyes slowly, turned to look first on one side, then on the other, and to himself he said:

“I’m going to run away!”

He did not say this aloud for fear some of the other ponies or the horses would hear him. Oh! I forgot to tell you that Tinkle was a little pony, that lived in the big green meadow; and, being a pony, of course Tinkle ate grass, and liked it, too.

So, as I said, Tinkle stopped eating the grass and said to himself once more:

“I’m going to run away!”

The reason Tinkle did not want the other ponies and the horses to know what he was going to do was because his mother and father were over in one corner of the meadow, and if they knew he intended to run away, they would not let him do it; any more than your mother or father would let you run away.

Of course I know that horses sometimes run away when they are frightened by something, and I suppose ponies, too, may, once in a while, trot off when they ought not. But that isn’t saying it is right.

“Yes,” said Tinkle to himself, “I’m going to run away. I’m tired of staying in this meadow all the while. Why, I’ve been here over a year now, and there hasn’t a thing happened except a thunder storm now and then, or a rain shower. I want to see something more than that. I want to have some fun, and go off to a big city, such as the other horses tell about.

“Why, there’s Dapple Gray,” went on Tinkle, looking at an old horse who had come to the green meadow for a long rest. “I’ve heard Dapple tell stories about drawing a big shiny wagon that spouted fire and smoke just like the chimney on the house where The Man lives. That was great! I’d like to pull the kind of wagon Dapple tells about, and hear the bells ring and see the sparks fly and the water spout out on the fire. I wonder what kind of wagon it was?”