I saddled Brownie, my best pony, and started at seven, because it's a twelve-mile ride to the Higsons' farm, and I wanted to be early so as to have time for plenty of fun.

Brownie was fresh, and he wasn't tired when I got there, so we decided to give him an hour's rest and then ride up into the bush and have a picnic.

Pamela showed me her birthday presents while we waited.

She'd had a box sent her by the mail, and she was very delighted about it.
"Well, at perhaps eleven o'clock I set off with Pamela and the rest of the Higson children.

There was Jake, just my own age, and Billy, a little younger, and Connie and Minnie, the two smallest.