Eleanor H. Porter

“ On and on down the long straight road flew Jupiter Ann and the little gray mare. At door and window of the scudding houses appeared men and women with startled faces and upraised hands. Miss Prue knew that they were there, and shuddered. The shame of it—she, in a horse race, and with Rupert Joyce! Hurriedly she threw a look at the young man's face to catch its expression; and then she saw something else: The little gray mare was a full half head in the lead of Jupiter Ann! ”

“ Miss Prue awoke then to the sudden realization that if the other's speed had accelerated, so, too, had her own.
“Ann, Ann, whoa!” she commanded. Then she turned angry eyes on the young man. “Go by—go by! Why don't you go by?” she called sharply.
In obedience, young Joyce touched the whip to his gray mare; but he did not go by. With a curious little shake, as if casting off years of dull propriety, Jupiter Ann thrust forward his nose and got down to business.
Miss Prue grew white, then red. Her hands shook on the reins.
“Ann, Ann, whoa! You mustn't—you can't! Ann, please whoa!” ”

“ IT was only after serious consideration that Miss Prue had bought the little horse, Jupiter, and then she had changed the name at once. For a respectable spinster to drive any sort of horse was bad enough in Miss Prue's opinion; but to drive a heathen one!
To replace “Jupiter” she considered “Ann” a sensible, dignified, and proper name, and “Ann” she named him, regardless of age, sex, or “previous condition of servitude.” The villagers accepted the change—though with modifications; the horse was known thereafter as “Miss Prue's Jupiter Ann.” ”