"Remember," said Ella to him, in a low tone, just as the horses
started, "you told me that you would ride just as well as you could,
and we must earn the dollars mamma promised."
It seemed to Toby at first as if he could not stand up, but by
the time they had ridden around the ring once, and Ella had again
cautioned him against making any mistake, for the sake of the money
which they were going to earn, he was calm and collected enough to
carry out his part of the "act" as well as if he had been simply
taking a lesson.
The act consisted in their riding side by side, jumping over banners
and through hoops covered with paper, and then the most difficult
portion began.
The saddles, were taken off the horses, and they were to ride first
on one horse and then on the other, until they concluded their
performance by riding twice around the ring side by side, standing
on their horses, each one with a hand on the other's shoulder.
All this was successfully accomplished without a single error,
and when they rode out of the ring the applause was so great as to
leave no doubt but that they would be recalled and thus earn the
promised money.
In fact, they had hardly got inside the curtain when one of the
attendants called to them, and before they had time even to speak
to each other they were in the ring again, repeating the last
portion of their act.
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