“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.