MODOC

A girl, her dad, two horses, and a birthday misunderstanding add up to one of the sappiest saddle stories to be dignified by hard covers. Though Helen fides and plays with her father's horse Modoc she expects upon turning eleven to be given a horse of her own. For a while she believes that a visitor's small pony is meant for her, but Modoc's jealousy of the new pony makes her realize that he's the horse she wants: ""I realized what people mean when they say old friends are best. . .I felt older than I had in the morning when I childishly fell in love with Jubilee (the pony). Somehow I had found out something important about myself."" Further consolation is the beautiful lady's saddle, her father's real gift, which caps ""the best birthday yet. Oh, Daddy, the very best."" You can read more like this in any two-cent-a-word girls' monthly.