Even the children could not help seeing that Timmie looked and behaved just like a child who has been caught doing something naughty, and it was so amusing to watch him break into a canter and pretend he had been pulling all the time that they both burst out laughing.
“Why didn’t Rice do it, too?” enquired Diana: “isn’t he like Timmie?”
“Like Timmie?” echoed Jenefer. “They are as different as they can possibly be,” she continued with great energy: “as unlike as you are from John, or from me. No two ponies ever have the same character, and although Timmie and Rice are an almost perfect match to look at, Rice is as honest, good and hardworking as Timmie is lazy, idle and shirking. That’s why I always put Rice on the near side when he’s going in a pair with this other horrid little pony; I never want to touch him with a whip, and I put Timmie on the off side where I can use the lash to him.”
It would have been alarming to hear such a tirade from Jenefer if her lovely hazel eyes had not looked as kind as ever, and if her voice had not remained as soft. As it was, the children felt more at home with her every minute, so they soon began chattering and asking her questions, and John found out that there were thirty-six ponies waiting to be seen at Bunts at that very moment. This was so exciting that Diana and he could scarcely believe it, and thought Miss Jenefer was laughing at them, until she explained that although there were thirty-six ponies only thirty-two belonged to Miss Fairfax, as there were four visitors. This seemed to lend an air of probability to the numbers and gave Diana and John greater confidence in the original statement, so that when Miss Jenefer added there were five foals as well they were inclined to believe that too, far as the statement exceeded their hopes and imaginings. While they were still hearing what colour the foals had been born and what colour Miss Jenefer thought they would become, she suddenly turned the ponies’ noses out of the deep leafy lane they were in towards a gateway with a rough cart track stretching beyond it.
“Now here we are!” she said: “This is the entrance to Bunts. Miss Fairfax won’t have a proper drive made because she is afraid people would come to see her in motors if she did, and there is nothing she hates so much. So it is left like this, and one of you must get down and open the gate.”
Diana was the first down, and then nothing would do but John must get down too, and they held open the rough, five-barred gate while Jenefer drove through. They had to scramble back in a hurry, for now the ponies had their noses so near the manger they were impatient to be at home and would not stand. Then, once the children were back in their seats, John thought the best part of the drive began. The track wound through several fields before it reached the house, and the farm carts had worn two narrow paths over the grass with their wheels, while the horses had trodden another narrow path in the middle with their feet; but unfortunately this cart track was too wide for the pony carriage, and Timmie and Rice, instead of being in the path trodden by the horse, had to scramble along the two green strips on each side of it as best they could. The way lay all against collar, so they were pulling with might and main, and as the track was extremely uneven and full of holes, the pony-cart swayed and bumped from side to side, throwing John, who was sitting in the middle, first against Miss Jenefer and then rolling him into Diana.
Far from minding this odd transit John began to laugh, and when he pitched against Diana she began to laugh too. The laughter and the jolting were so infectious that Jenefer entered into the fun, and called out so often: “Here’s another big bump coming—mind you don’t roll out,” that the children laughed more than ever, and it was a merry party indeed which was finally set down at Bunts.
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Published by Jane Badger Books 2020
First published by Collins, London, 1957
© The estate of Josephine Pullein-Thompson
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Pony Club Camp (Noel and Henry Book 5) Page 17