Chap­ter 9: Mer­ry legs opens with a live­ly account of how the cheer­ful, depend­able pony Mer­rylegs serves as the first rid­ing com­pan­ion for the chil­dren of Mr. Blomefield’s house­hold. His role goes far beyond entertainment—he becomes a patient teacher and a gen­tle guardian, espe­cial­ly when car­ry­ing the young girls like Miss Jessie and Flo­ra. While he hap­pi­ly accom­mo­dates their care­ful rides, the dynam­ic shifts when the boys become too row­dy or over­stay their time, leav­ing him tired and need­ing a break. Mer­rylegs, with his qui­et intel­li­gence, decides to teach the old­er boys a gen­tle les­son in respect. Instead of endur­ing their dis­re­gard, he calm­ly but deci­sive­ly toss­es them off—not out of anger, but as a cor­rec­tion. This sub­tle act sur­pris­es the boys, who quick­ly learn not to push bound­aries with a pony that bal­ances kind­ness with self-respect.

When James, the sta­ble boy, observes Mer­rylegs return­ing slight­ly flus­tered, he soon learns from the boys what had occurred. Rather than scold­ing the pony, James seems to under­stand that the gen­tle rep­ri­mand Mer­rylegs gave was jus­ti­fied and even nec­es­sary. Mer­rylegs explains to Black Beau­ty that he nev­er intends harm, but feels it is impor­tant to com­mu­ni­cate lim­its when they’re not being respect­ed. He prides him­self on being a trust­wor­thy and well-behaved pony, espe­cial­ly with chil­dren, and knows his val­ue lies in his gen­tle nature. His abil­i­ty to bal­ance firm­ness with affec­tion shows a deep aware­ness of his respon­si­bil­i­ties. The chil­dren may not real­ize it, but they’re learn­ing far more from Mer­rylegs than sim­ply how to ride—they’re learn­ing how to treat ani­mals with aware­ness and empa­thy.

Mer­rylegs reflects on the dif­fer­ence in how he han­dles boys ver­sus girls, not­ing that the girls are always gen­tle and polite, so he nev­er needs to cor­rect them. He even takes care to be extra steady when they are on his back, proud of his role in giv­ing them con­fi­dence as young rid­ers. This care­ful, affec­tion­ate atti­tude earns him high praise from the mas­ter, who calls him a trea­sure in the sta­ble. Mer­rylegs glows with pride when recall­ing how his good behav­ior is appre­ci­at­ed and reward­ed. He believes deeply in repay­ing kind­ness with loy­al­ty and nev­er for­gets that his gen­tle treat­ment allows him to live a safe and con­tent­ed life. His words reveal a sense of grat­i­tude and com­mit­ment to being the kind of ani­mal peo­ple can trust and love.

Gin­ger, who is more fiery and sus­pi­cious of human behav­ior, scoffs at Mer­rylegs’ for­giv­ing nature and sug­gests that harsh­er meth­ods might work bet­ter. But Mer­rylegs, calm and sure of him­self, insists that trust and kind­ness build a stronger foun­da­tion for last­ing respect. He explains that the boys wouldn’t have learned any­thing if he had kicked or bit­ten them—it would have only fright­ened them and per­haps led to pun­ish­ment for him. Instead, by choos­ing a method that was cor­rec­tive yet harm­less, he main­tained his role as a beloved pony while still set­ting bound­aries. His sto­ry stands as a qui­et but pow­er­ful tes­ta­ment to the idea that firm kind­ness is more effec­tive than cru­el­ty or rebel­lion.

This chap­ter sub­tly under­scores the impact of con­sis­tent com­pas­sion and the role of ani­mals as silent teach­ers in the lives of chil­dren. Mer­rylegs shows that respect is not demand­ed through fear, but earned through depend­able behav­ior and thought­ful inter­ac­tion. His wis­dom and gen­tle­ness con­trast with the reac­tive atti­tude of Gin­ger, reveal­ing that strength doesn’t always need to roar. Read­ers are remind­ed that ani­mals, par­tic­u­lar­ly those entrust­ed with chil­dren, are not just pas­sive par­tic­i­pants but active guides in shap­ing young minds. The chapter’s mes­sage speaks clear­ly: bound­aries mat­ter, but how they are taught can define a life­time of rela­tion­ships between ani­mals and peo­ple.

By pre­sent­ing Mer­rylegs as both teacher and friend, the sto­ry encour­ages readers—especially young ones—to appre­ci­ate the respon­si­bil­i­ty of car­ing for ani­mals. The patience he demon­strates is not weak­ness; it is a delib­er­ate choice root­ed in under­stand­ing and self-respect. Mer­rylegs’ way of deal­ing with the chil­dren offers a mir­ror for how all crea­tures might be treated—with firm­ness where need­ed, but always with love. Through his small but sig­nif­i­cant actions, he helps shape not just the children’s rid­ing skills, but their sense of account­abil­i­ty and empa­thy, leav­ing a last­ing impres­sion far greater than the rides he pro­vides.