"I am," said Harriet, "and what is more, if they think I am going to ride one of those horrid donkeys, they are very much mistaken. You can mount on your Thistle, or your Nettle all by yourself, as far as I am concerned. If I can't have a pony like Bo-peep or Bluefeather, I shan't ride at all." "Oh, Harriet; you will make us all so unhappy, and it will look so bad, and dear Mr Durrant won't like it." "Dear Mr Durrant!" echoed Harriet in a tone of great contempt. "He ought not to expect a girl like me to ride a donkey; it is a sort of reproach to me, that it is!" "Oh, Harriet! I never knew anyone quite so kind as Mr Durrant; and then you will vex little Ralph; think of that; you do love Ralph." "Yes," said Harriet, thoughtfully. "On the whole, I love him very much. I never cared for a little boy before; he is quite the nicest child I have ever come across, but there are some things even about him that I cannot bear. I want him to stop calling me his naughty school-mother. It is like for ever and for ever bringing up my little adventure with him. I am going to speak to him about that. He shan't go on with it; I mean to put a stop to it." "Oh, but he does it so innocently," said Jane. "It vexes me," interrupted Harriet, "and he shan't go on with it. Then I do want him not to show such a marked preference for Robina when I am by. I wish--I do wish--" "What?" said Jane. "That I could yet get him really to love me best. The fact is this, Janie. I don't like Robina one little scrap more than I ever liked her; and if I could open Ralph's eyes, and get him to see that she is not a bit nice really; why--that would be something worth living for." "I don't know how you are to manage it," said Jane; "and I think," she added, "even if you could do it, it would be a very horrid thing to do." "Oh! what a goody you are turning into!" was Harriet's response. "Well, I am going to put my wits in soak; I generally think out a way when I have pondered it long enough. Oh, trust me, Janie; and all I want from you is this--" "What?" asked Janie. "Your help when the time comes." "Oh, dear!" said Jane. "That means something wicked!" "You have a nice opinion of me, Jane." "But it does, doesn't it?" said Jane. "I cannot tell you how mean I felt when I had to praise you all day long that day when I was Ralph's school-mother. I got positively sick of the feeling: I don't want to have to do that again." "You won't," said Harriet. "It will be something quite different now. But there's the tea-bell, and I am hungry. I am so thankful that we need not stand any longer in that yard looking at those hideous donkeys. Let us run to the house; let's see who'll be there first!"