A gay wooden horse belonged to a little boy named Peter. It began to grow until it was big enough to take Peter for a ride back home to the woodcarver who had made it. When the woodcarver saw the little red horse come to life he said, "Well, well, every tree has a heart. I have known that for a long time. If one accidentally finds this heart in a piece of wood, then the wood comes alive, whether it happens to be a wooden shoe, or a fiddle, or a little wooden horse." Peter longed for home so the woodcarver took him, but the little red horse stayed on at the woodcarver's.

From the E.M. Hale edition