The Black Jade Filly — Ethel M. Comins

From San Francisco to Perchville, New York, was a long, long way in distance -- but even greater were the two ways of life. Phyllis Ames had just graduated from high school -- and was living with her mother at the very top of Telegraph Hill -- when Marian Ingram came through San Francisco on her way to Hawaii. On and impulse, she called Libby Ames -- and found, to her amazement, that the widow of the man she had once loved had a daughter. Not even Phil Ames's mother, who, like Marian, lived near Perchville, had been told of Phyllis's birth, which had occurred on the day her father lost his life in Korea.

It was thrilling to Phyllis to find that she had a grandmother and that her father's old friend wanted to be called “Aunt Marian.” But discovering her new family meant more than that. All her life she had wanted to ride -- and if her mother would only consent, that was what she planned to do when she visited her grandmother.

And so -- for a brief summer -- a new life begins for Phyllis. The little black jade filly -- a gift from Marian -- becomes a talisman; it will bring her luck, for the Chinese believe that black jade brings luck to its owner. And after meeting handsome young Arch Webster and finding a real black filly at the Horse Show, Phyllis believes it, too -- but that is before the summer almost ends in tragedy.