In a barn there were three horses and their names were Danny and Fanny and Prince. Somehow Bobbie, who was the farmer’s youngest son, always liked it when the horses had their ears up though he couldn’t have quite told you why. They seemed to be so very, very friendly then.
Bobbie had been having a very fine day, and as he tumbled into bed he hardly had time to whisper to his old friend the Dream King. He used to say, just before he went off to sleep, “Please, Mr. Dream King, send me nice dreams.”
If he did not feel so dreadfully, dreadfully sleepy he would make his little speech longer and would say, “Your gracious majesty, Mr. Dream King, will your royal highness do a poor, humble subject like myself the great and noble and wondrous honor of sending me most royal and noble dreams?”
This evening all he said was, “Nice dreams, please.”
Soon, oh, so soon, it seemed as though he saw Danny and Fanny and Prince walking into his room. And then they stood at the end of the bed, all in a row.
“Hello, Bobbie,” they said.
“Hello, Danny and Fanny and Prince,” said Bobbie.
“We’ve come to tell you something,” said Fanny.
“It’s something you’ve always wanted to know,” said Danny.
“And because I’m the oldest horse, they’ve given me the honor of telling it to you,” added Prince.
Then the three horses neighed, looked at each other, smiled their horse smiles and then looked at Bobbie.
“You’ve always wanted to know why we put our ears straight up when you’ve come around,” said Prince.
“Oh yes,” said Bobbie, “I’ve always wanted to know if there was any special reason for it.”
“There is,” said Prince, “and I will tell it to you. When we put our ears up it’s to tell you we’re feeling pleasant and friendly. When horses put their ears way back it means they’re cross and that perhaps they’ll bite. But we have never put our ears back on our heads when you’ve been around, Bobbie, so it means we always, always like to have you with us.”
And the next morning when Bobbie got up he went out to his three friends and kissed them and said, “I know a secret of yours.”