Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1894-06-14
A HORSE STORY.
Nothing Moro Than Might Have Been Ex-
pected of a Morgan.

pected of "a Morgan.
The first Morgan of my remembrance
was chestnut mare scant 10 hands and
weighing about 900 pounds. She was
one of a span driven by DR.. Pierce OF
Strafford, VT, ON a visit to his wife's
relatives at Templeton Mass, some time
about 1886 and traded to my father,
who kept her for 10 years or more.
This was the first horse | ever sat- She
would hold down her head so | could
halter her in the pasture and stand up
by the stone wall for me to climb on her
back. She was round as an apple, and
with me clinging to her name she stepped
with gentleness so | should not slide
off. Could she go? When my father
held the reins, hitched to Concord wag-
ON or chaise, she was in the lead. ]
have ridden her to glow corn. Temple
ton is flush 90 miles from Boston and
was the home of Hon. Artemus Lee, who
always kept the best of road horses.
For pastime as well as the money there
was in it my father melted" wild pi-
geons and sold them at Faneuil Hall
market The net would be sprung in
the morning, the pigeons dressed during
the day, and just rs evening came on
they would be loaded ON the wagon
and the mares head turned ocean
ward. At daylight the following morn
ing only the custom house would be
between the mare and Long Wharf. y
The load sold, she went over to Cam
bridge and after breakfast began the
home trip Suffice it to say she fed
in her own pasture and drank OF the
water OF ''Otter" river that night. This
100 mile Journey performed inside of
"a hours was made several times in a
season, according to luck had with the
''crop of pigeons. Grass fed? The mare
fed in the summer with the yoke of
oxen. A lane connected that pasture
with the barnyard, and she came to the
barn whether she worked or not every
day to get her two quarts of oats.
AS the years went on and l grew
up" as boys will, my father sometimes
criticised me for driving too hard.
When l inquired, seeking for prece-
dent to justify myself, if he did not
think the drives he gave old Doll on the
returns from Boston We're rather hard
ones, he replied: My son, | did not
drive her hard. She wanted to go home
to mother and the children, and l let
her take her own gait. " Doll was a nat
ural roadster, a granddaughter of Bull
Rush Morgan.
Some time about the year 1854 it be-
came necessary to procure for q promi-
nent citizen, whose liberty was in jeop-
ardy on account of the false testimony
that was brought against him III the
court of common pleas being held at the
old courthouse in the city of Worcester,
Mass, the presence of certain witnesses.
When court adjourned on Saturday aft
ernoon, | was deputed to seek these wit
nesses, who lived in the town of Somer-
set, Vt, and secure their attendance at
court on Tuesday morning. Midnight
found me by railroad at the Island
House, Bellows Falls. Sunday morning
I called at the livery Earn Of Charles
Towne, between whose Knees I, as an
8-year-old boy, had often sat, believing
I was driving his four horses as they
sped down the hill into Fitz William
village, and told him of the necessity
for my having good horse. 1t was
winter, the drifts We're high and 1 had
got to plunge into the mountains after
left New Fame. Charley loaned me
his fur overcoat and gloves, hitched to
the cutter black mare, IA hands high,
weight $50 pounds, remarking as the
hitching up process went on: George,
this is one of your fathers kind. When
you leave the river road, lower the check
line, so if she founders in the snow she
can have her head, and if you are as at
tentive to the mare as you used to be
when was teaching you to drive stage
horses you will be back tonight all
right, and I will set up for you until 10
O'Clock. -
The mercury stood at about 10 de-
grees above zero all day. The mare
went like bird. I rested her at New
Fame and rested myself by walking up
to the courthouse there and looking at
the portrait Of the great lawyer, S. r.
Bradley, and pushed on. The mare
never faltered nor tired, and having Sc
cured the promised attendance at court
of the parties l sought l was back at
New Fame for supper. Toward night
it grew colder; the wind swept the
mountain heights; the snow whirled
thick in the keen air, but ever the drifts
went the little mare, never making a
mistake in her footing and seemingly as
cheerful as in the morning. When we
got to Saxton's river and she realized
she was nearing home, with smooth
road and no more drifts, she expressed
her joy at the journey nearly done by ID
sharp whinny, and with uplifted head
struck sharper trot. found Mr..
Towne waiting for me at $3.50 o'clock
p. m. l was half an hour ahead of the
time allotted. had driven not an inch
less than a hundred miles. My mission
had been successful. ''felt good, F" and
up in the Island House, despite the Main
law, Charley and l drank ''hot flip T"
with repeat. What of the mare? l
called on her the next morning before
the train left, and she was as fine as silk.
| Why shouldn't she be? She was daugh-
ter of Clifford Morgan. George E. Bry-
ant in Horseman.