Chapter V

This was the beginning of turbulent times between master and servant. When my doctor drove Prince, all went well; but from that morning Fred and he were always in a row. Many a time have I been reluctantly turned over to the elder brother to keep peace and save Prince from a pounding.

On sunny days, as it came on spring, we horses used to be turned into the pasture for a little run; and on one of these occasions Prince spoke of his hatred for his master.

"But you were to blame in the first place," I said.

"Well," he answered, "I suppose I am ugly. I never thought so, though, till I came here and saw you and the bays. But it is no wonder. When I was a tiny colt I was badgered and tormented by boys until I learned to use my teeth and heels in self-defence. The harder I fought, the more they teased me. Then when the men came to break me, I was naturally wild and unmanageable; and they yelled and whipped me until I was fairly beside myself with fear. I learned one thing, and that was that by kicking and biting I could conquer some of them.

"Had I been treated with quiet, kind firmness, I might have had a different history. I am not the only otherwise fine horse that has been ruined in the training. Everybody has been hard and cruel with me, and I have just made up my mind to fight it out and die game.

"What's the fun or comfort in living, anyhow? You give your time, strength and life for the little you can eat (when you happen to get that), and if you live past your usefulness you're turned out to starve and freeze. Men are working for themselves and laying by for old age, but we, who work much harder, have nothing but starvation and death in anticipation.

"Where I lived last there was an old horse that had outlived her usefulness. She had raised fifteen sons and daughters, worth none of them less than $800 when four years old, and had scarcely missed a day's work since she was two years old. But we will suppose that she had worked only three hundred days in the year and put it at the low valuation of fifty cents a day, ought she not to have had something laid by for old age? Well, at thirty-four she was worn out, and master said he couldn't afford to feed a horse that couldn't work, so the hired man led her out in the woods with the gun over his shoulder. He put her in position, stepped off and fired. The ball cut through her cheek and passed on. Frightened and hurt, she turned and tried to run away. He called her, and do you believe it? she was so used to obeying that she turned back and came toward him, stopping when he told her to, even though the gun was again pointed in her face. That time he shot her dead.

"I've seen so much of such work no wonder I am ugly!"

Before we went into the barn, Prince admitted that he liked Dr. Dick. "Had I had him for my master I might not have hated and distrusted men so. I am as gentle as a lamb with women and little girls."

In the years since, I have found that the vicious horse with bad habits is universally the one that was spoiled in its early training. I wish people were more patient and could understand that colts need only gentleness and firmness. From my earliest babyhood I was taught by loving hands to wear a halter and be led. I early learned to obey and not to fear. When once we horses learn a thing we almost cannot forget it; then, if we are only taught good things, we are all right.

It had not grown quite warm enough for Grim to go back to his bed on the porch, so he still slept in my manger, when we were startled one night by an unfamiliar step on the barn floor. Stealthily some one flashed a lantern into my stall and a strange hand rested on my back. The next moment Grim had flung himself out of that box and had his teeth fastened in the intruder's leg.

A volley of muttered curses burst from the man's lips as he wildly tried to kick and pound his adversary off. With one blow of my left foot I smashed his lantern all to pieces, and then began neighing as loud as I could, in which the other horses immediately joined.

All the while a terrible struggle was going on upon the floor.

It seemed an age before Master, closely followed by Bob, came; but I suppose it was only a few minutes.

In the dim light they could just make out two figures rolling about, but Bob's lantern hung right by the door and it was the work of a moment to light it, and of another for Dr. Dick's strong arms to pinion the horse-thief.

Poor Grim was pretty badly gashed up from the pocket-knife in the man's hand, but he had proven himself faithful. The man was soon handed over to justice, the dog being cared for by Dr. Dick and Mrs. Fred. I did not see him again for several weeks, as they removed him at once to the house. I missed him very much, especially nights when the other horses were out.

One circumstance that he told me, among many others, I want to mention. He was speaking of the hardships endured by street-car mules. In the city where he lived they used all mules on the street cars. One day he was riding down town with his master (Ruthie's father) when, through the carelessness of the conductor in neglecting the brakes on the down grade, the car ran right on the poor creatures, cutting them very badly and breaking a leg for each.

That was the first occurrence of the kind I had ever heard of, but very many have come to my knowledge since. Just of late years humane societies are looking for such things a little in our Northern cities, but what is being done along this and other similar lines is but a drop in the bucket, compared to what there is to be done.

That spring Julie became the proud mother of a handsome roan colt, and as it was born on Chet's birthday, it was given to him. He named it Topsy. Chet was all father, hasty, passionate, headstrong, yet a coward withal, who must have a guiding hand to keep him anywhere near the right. This "hand," so far in his life, had been the slender white one of his mother.

Carm, three years younger, was more like the gentle being who gave him birth; naturally refined and good, but, unlike her, easily led and controlled. Could a sad calamity that visited the family the next fall have been averted, how different might have read the story of these lads' lives.

The summer was not particularly eventful, so far as I could see, but I had a premonition of coming ill. Master seemed dispirited, and frequently told me that life was not worth the living. One morning I was surprised to feel a side-saddle on my back. Master put his face close to mine and whispered words that put me all of a tremble; it was a sad hour. Tenderly Dr. Fred lifted his wife to my back, while Dr. Dick mounted Prince. For the first time I noticed how pale Mrs. Fred was and how worried her husband looked. After that I carried her often for a time, sometimes accompanied by my master, as on the first morning, but more often by Dr. Fred on Julie. He dared not mount Prince.

After awhile the saddle was given up for the single buggy, and then the gentle woman ceased going out at all. It was late one morning before Bob came out to attend to us, and I noticed that he was crying softly.

"She's just been like a mother to me," he burst out at last, "and now she's gone. I'll never have another sech a friend."

I was wild to ask some questions, but of course could only paw and whinny softly until Master came slowly in. The first thing he did was to lean his head down on my shoulder and murmur.

"She's with Annie now; God help us all!"

I understood it then; our sweet mistress was dead.

The year following was a dreary irritating one, and yet better than its successors. The boys grew perfectly lawless, save when their uncle Dick spoke. Dr. Fred drank a good deal "to drown trouble," he said. Bob and my master only remained unchanged.

Mrs. Fred had been dead one year and nine days when Fred brought home another wife. She was so different from the first one, and so silly, it seemed to me. I had not forgotten my mistress and I wondered if her husband had. Dr. Dick told me again and again that it was "a perfect shame!" and Bob made faces at her back. Chet and Carm--mimicking their father, tone and all--called her "my dear;" and, when bidden to call her mother, replied that their mother was dead. She became furious before she had been Mrs. Wallace a week. Her husband sided with her, and there was one continual row. After her "bridish sweetness"--as Bob called it--wore off, she was quite able to hold her own, and either flogged the boys herself, or had Dr. Fred do it, every day. Often, when the latter was intoxicated, my master had to interfere to save the children from being maimed.

All that was evil in those two boys grew and flourished; all that was good withered and, apparently, died. They grew cruel and unjust to us horses, but for all that, I pitied them, especially Carm.

By spring Mrs. Wallace had tormented her husband into the notion of selling out there in K---- and removed to M----, the growing little city from which she came. Further, she turned Bob off, and installed her brother Parker in his place.

We horses used to talk the changes over sorrowfully, and wonder if she would manage anyway to get Dr. Dick out of the way.

The night before Bob left, he and Master were talking in the barn.

"I would stay here and let them go by themselves," the latter said, "but Fred can't get along without me; he is not himself all the time, and I feel so badly for poor Nannie's boys; in fact, I promised her to stay with Fred and do the best I could by him. I'll stick by him. Life is nothing to me anyway, only as I can help some person or thing."

I know he found Bob a good place, but it was a sorry day for us when Park Winters became hired boy at the Wallace stables.

Well, we all moved to M----.

The doctors bought a house in town, but the office was two blocks away. They also bought a farm a mile out, and put a man, named Stringer, on to farm it.