″‘This is my chance to ride her,’ he thought. He climbed on the top bar of the fence and jumped on Gem’s back. The bar broke with a loud crack and scared the mare. She threw Willie off, jumped over the broken bar and galloped away.”
″‘Why were you so late?’ Sara asked Willie.
‘I was watching the wild horse from Sable Island unloading. It’s a terrible thing to make wild horses go down the pits.‘”
“All the same, he couldn’t keep away from the Sable Island horses. They were being trained in a paddock down by the waterfront. Willie ran there after school, whistling all the way, his pockets filled with wild apples.”
“Soon, it would be dark. ‘Even if I turn back and run all the way, I can never get home before Papa! He’s going to take me out of school and make me go down the pits.‘”