The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1877-08-10
The Story OF Frisky-TaiI.

FrlSky-Iall was morse. HIS dirty
white color and great clumsy head made
men call him the ugliest horse that ever
was seen. 1 won't call him homefy,"
you see, because the word always sug-
gests much that is dearest and best to
me. The horse was ugly to look at, and
that was why he was sold cheap, to
dump-cart man, who had dump-cart
full of children.
Now, there are thousands of dump
cart men, hut this one did not hit his
horse with pieces of board, nor swear at
him; and the big-headed horse began to
understand that he had got into good
society. His tail put on a skittish wag
The children laughed at it, and forgot
to be afraid. When the horse got
through work and was eating in his
field by the cottage, of an evening, the
children would look through the gate at
him, and as soon as he raw them he
would begin TO run round the field, and
dance about, to please them. In lit
tie while, John, the largest boy, climbed
over the gate. and the old horse came
up and rubbed his nose on the boys
jacket. He turned very red in the face,
and then laughed so loud that his sister
said:
Ct guess John was some afraid"
John declared he was not afraid, and
then all the children climbed over the
gate, with the exception of the little baby
brother, who tried to creep under the
lowest rail and got stuck in the middle.
They had to scrape his poor little nose
in the dirt before they could pull him
through.
On that evening the horse was very
quiet, and contented himself with the
oldest wags and twists and fiirts of his
ragged tail. His narrative never
paused for moment, but he seemed to
know that il would not do to brighten bis
guests by any racing round or kicking
up OF, his heels in, the air. Yet it came to
this before long, for the children were
never afraid after that evening; and
whenever the horse saw them coming he
would cut up all kinds of capers, and
they would roll on the grass together.
1t did not seem to make any difference
that the field belonged to rich man
who had spent Ids life in trying to prove
that the children Of the poor know moth
ing but misery. So ~
To make a change in the play, the
horse would sometimes take up the baby
brother by the dress, and gallop round
the field with him in his mouth, and the
delicate little fellow would laugh till
you could count every blue vein on his
fair brow. Then the horse would laugh
too. Didn't the children hear him
The little baby brother grew sick, and
one evening, when he was very weak and
pale, he struggled up from his little bed
I'd said (:
Me want to see Frisky-Tail.
His father carried him to the window
where he could see the little field and
the children playing in it, with the ole
horse, and, gazing at them, the baby
brother laid his pretty head on his ia
theirs shoulder and closed his sweet eyes
only to open them in heaven. That wal
how Frisky-Tail got his name.
Some years went on and the dump
cart man having done all that he haC
been put in the world to do God called
him home, and the dirt on his idl,
dump-cart grew dry and crumbleC
away.
The children told Frisky-Tail al
about their great loss, and he stood will
his great clumsy head thrust over tn,
gate all day. Then they talked with tn,
neighboring children.