Bill Hayden always danced around a good deal on one foot, she remembered, before he essayed to swing up.

Standing on an ant hill did not permit much of the preliminary dancing around to which Jake was accustomed, so Mary V caught reins and saddle horn and made a desperate, flying leap.
She landed in the saddle, found the stirrups and cried, "You, Jake!" in a not altogether convincing tone.

Jake was walking on his hind feet by way of intimating that he objected to so tight a rein.

After that he danced sidewise, fought for his head, munched the strange bit angrily, snorted and made what the boys called Jake's chain-lightnin' gitaway.
Mary V knew that Jake was running away with her, but since he was running along the trail to Sinkhole camp she did not mind so much as you might think.

At the worst he would fall down and she would get a "spill." She knew the sensation, having been spilled several times.