St. Landry democrat., 1889-08-17
The Grey Horse and the Justice Bell.

Once upon time, man owned very
fine grey horse. Where he lived there
were no stesm-cars nor stages to take him
from one place to another. The roads
were narrow, and often lay through dark
forests, so the man always rode on his
grey horse. One winters day he started
off early in the morning and told his wife
he would not return before evening, for
he must go to the other end of the woods
that lay to the left of their house. 1t had
been very cold for many days, the ground
was frozen hard and all the animals in the
woods could find nothing to eat. 1t was
quite dark before the man started home
and as he rode along he heard bowling
that came nearer and nearer, till very soon
hesaw ever so many wolves eyes glisten-
ing. They came nearer and nearer. he
knew they must be very hungry, and
would surely eat him up and his good grey
horse, too. You can imagine how fright
ened he was. He patted the horse and
said, NOW, my dear horse, run as fast as
you can if you do not carry me through
these woods very swiftly the wolves will
eat me. If you will save me now l will
always be your friend The horse gave
one snort. just as if to say, 81 will do my
utmost" and then he just flew along the
man had all he could do to hold on. They
flew faster and faster all the trees seemed
to run the other way, and by and by the
bowling of the wolves sounded fainter and
fainter for they could not run as fast as
the horse did, Then. after little while,
the man saw the lights in his house, and
he felt happy. He said to every one
This horse has saved my life; he must
have nice large stable, good oats to eat,
and clean straw for his bedding every
night. / will rub him up and clean him
myself every day"
Well for some time the man groomed
him himself and treated him like dear
friend. But the horse had caught cold
the night he saved his master, and he
grew blind and lame, and little by little
the man forgot to love him and to take
care of him. "Wbat is the use of giving
this blind, stiff horss oats he can get
along with hay" he thought by himself
one day. Another day he thought: "Why
should take all this trouble of cleaning
him?' And then it was winter again, the
ground was covered, knee deep with snow
and the wind was bitter cold, and one
| night when it was dark and no one could
see him, the man opened the stable door
and drove the poor, lame horse out.
The poor least foundered about, snuff
fling to find some shelter, stumbling
a!ong-for you know he could not see
until he came to the house of justice.
The house of Justice was the biggest
house in the place. 1t hao high steeple
in which was big bell. From this bell
there hung rope which came way down
to the floor of the building. When any
one was in trouble and needed help from
his neighbors, he went to the house OF
Justice ard rang the bell. Then all the PEG
pie came and asked him what he wanted
When the poor beast felt that he was in s
house, he thought it might be a barn, SC
he went about searching for a bit of hay
for he was hungry. He shifted here ano
There, and finally came to the rope, ane
he took hold of it with mis- teeth ane
pulled with all his might. Dong !
Dong Y it rang out through the cold, still
night And all the people who heard it
quickly put on their coats and hats ant
ran to see who was in trouble. Some hat
brought lanterns, and when they saw thu
poor, half-starved beast, they were jus
as indignant with the cruel man as the,
could be. "Oh, for shame = they al
cried. isn't that the grey horse VIII
saved the mans life? Isn't that tn
horse who was to have fine barn, ant
oats and clean straw, and be groomed b.
his own MASTERY" The master had come
too, for he did not know his horse wa
rim ing the justice bell, and he wa
ashamed when he heard what others sal
of him They made him take home tn
horse and do exactly what he promised h
would, and think he felt sorry for hav
ing been so mean. From the German, b
! II