The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1880-09-10
Old Hannibal.
NELLIE T.. BARNES


Hannibal is too fat and too old"
"Too old? He and Barry are lust o.
an age"
And Barry's only little colt vet
Well, you may bring him and Prue out
to the grand review in the afternoon, but
l guess I'll ride the black this morning.
You can put Hannibal in the carryall.
Perhaps he'd like to take a look again a,
"a regiment of troops in line."
Barry and Prue listened with all their
ears. They knew there was TO be a grand
parade of soldiers that day, and they
were prouder than they knew how to
tell OF the fact that their father was to
wear a uniform, and ride horse. and
give orders to some of the men.
"Prue," said Barry, Gathers going
to speck them.
h-speck them," whispered Prue,
correcting him. Nobody else knows
how"
That might be, for Col. Dunway had
been an officer of the regular army, and
he was now Colonel of a regiment of
militia; but there was one thing he had
said that puzzled Barry and Prue dread
fully.
Barry" said Prue, after breakfast,
els Nibble old?"
Father says he is.
"And he said he was fat"
CDR. Barnes is old, and he's fat
"But his heads bare"
"Nibble isn't bald, and he isn't gray,
either"
"He's brown"
Mrs. Dunway had told the exact truth
about Hannibal, or Nibble, as the chill
dren called him. He and Barry were
Just OF an age, and he had been a mere
2-years-old colt when Prue was a baby
III her cradle. 1t was after that that
Col. Dunway had taken Hannibal with
HIM to the army and brought him home
again. He had been a war-horse. the
Colonel said, and so it would not do to
turn him into plowhorse, and the con-
sequence was that Nibble did not have
enough work to do, and he grew fat too
fast. Yet he and Barry were only 8
years old apiece. That made eighteen
years between them and, if you added
seven years for Prue, it would only have
made twenty-five, and everybody knows
that is not very old, if you had given
them all to Hannibal. Barry and Prue
would have given him almost anything
they had, for he was a great friend and
crony of theirs.
Prue," said Barry, ".let's go out to
the barn. I've got an apple"
He can have my bun
what there was left of it. that meant.
Tor Prue's little white teeth had been at
work on the bun. That had been a
troubled morning for Hannibal. Before
he had finished his breakfast party of
men rode by the house, and one of them
was playing on bugle. He had set
Hannibal's mind at work upon army
matters and war; so when Barry and
Prue came to see him he would not
ever m6ble. He smelled of the apple,
and he looked at the bun, but that was
all.
Hes getting DID," said Barry.
" And fat, added Pr,,e.
Tell you what, Prue, let's take him
out into the lot. 1 know mother'd let
u.s."
That was likely, for Mrs. Dunway al
ways kept safer about them if Nibble
were keeping them company.
"In get on his back"
And I'll lead him. Wait till I fix
the halter"
Prue climbed up on the side of the
stall where Nibble was. and he stood
perfectly still while she clambered over
to her place on his back. Barry knew
exactly what to do, and the old war
horse began to think he did himself. He
must have been thinking, for he half
closed one eye as he was walking out.
and opened the other very wide. with a
knowing look. He was
looking down the lane, and he saw that
the 'front.' gate was open, and just at that
moment there came up the road, very
lalnt and sweet, the music OF the cavalry
bugle.
. "Nibble I! Nibble I" exclaimed Barry,
' where are you going?"
Hannibal did not answer a word. but
walked on down the lane very fast in
Iced, and Barry lost held Of the halter.
As for Prue, she was not scared n parti-
Gle, for she had ridden in that wav mapy
time, and her confidence in herself and
I'D Nlbble was unbounded.
"Cluck, cluck, cluck-get-ap.
stop, Prue, stopl He's going
aster."
uet-ap Come, Barry. Oh, there's
mother at the window I"
Mrs. Dunway was not frightened any
more than Prue, for she said TO herself.
Too old, indeed Well, they're more
ike three children, when THEY'RE 70.
,ether, than anything else. I'm clad he
fat. He won't go too fast for Prue."
lie was in tine ROAD now, and he
eemed disposed to keep Barry from
gain getting hold of that halter.
oh, dear" said Barry, The parade
rounds down there"
Hannibal knew that, by the music.
nd he was almost trotting now. In
act, he was looking younger and
,ounger, somehow, every minute, and ,
'arfy ielt more and more as if he ought
have hold of the halter, instead of
Merely running alongside and shouting
D Prue. r
The regiment was drawn nm on tbe !,