The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1895-06-21
HOTEL
Flats TO LET
DIANA OF THE STALL.
Pathetic story of a Beautiful sSorreI
Ware Belonging to a CIergyman. !.

There lived in Auburn, N. Y, some
sixty years ago a clergyman, an inti-
mate friend of my grandmother. The
gentleman owned an exceedingly beauti-
full. fleet and graceful sorrel mare, which
bore the classic name if Diana. She was
the admiration of the town and the pride
of the elergyman's family. But alasi one
dark and stormy night the barn was
boldly entered and the beautiful Diana
stolen from her stall. All efforts to dis
cover the clever thief, though long and
p~erseveringly continued, were useless. At
last the family sorrowfully abandoned
hope; another but inferior horse was
purchased to which, by-the-way, the
children would not allow the occupancy
of the old stall of their pet. foE.t
with everything else which had benz
to her, they insisted upon keeping sh
to her memory.
Nearly twenty years had passed.
c~lergyman's hair had grown white
age and his children had become young
men and women. when he CHANGED, one
autumn to be called on business to a
remote part of the State. Having an
easy chaise he made the trip, as was not
uncomon in those days. by private con-
veyance. He was riding slowly along a
winding road on the third morning of his
journey, when his attention was forced
from the scenery to the strange behavior
of an old horse confined in a pasture by
the roadside. The creature seemed bent
upon attracting the clergyman's notice;
it pranced, snorted and beat the fence
with it's forefeet, keeping all the time in
line with the, slowly moving chaise.
singular conduct the Clergyman drove
along to the end of the pasture and then
b 5rrne6 fr IF in i an d opposit q a TDad mhi Ss
he did SO he was startled by a cry of
such human agony from the poor erea-
stopped his horse and Looked back There
at the corner of the fence she stood her
neck thrust despairingly. forward trem-
eyes fixed upon him with ar expression
Of utter helpless misery. which strangely
moved the tender-hearted clergyman.
face of the animal bore a marked re-
semblance to his lost Diana. impressed
pulse, and drove rapidly hack to a farm
house near the pasture, where he found
the farmer just getting up from his
Friend said the clergyman. sis that
your horse in the, feld ~yonder?"
Yes; the mares mine. Pve had her
got her, friend?"
Il bought her of a peddler who cheated
didn't cheat me on that horse"
Diana, as sure as I'm alivei' cried the
clergyman starting, .excitedly for the pas
ture, followed by the astonished farmer.
old mare caught sight Of him she rushed
Old and faded. rough and lame, tho cier-
gyman still Enthusiastically recognized, his
lost beauty, and oh. the joyfofT Dianai
Tendsrly She licked her masters hands
his shoulder, and at last, with something
or her e,d eoauertish ways took the rim
and lifting it from his head replaced it
Never saw her dc tina before. cried
the farmer.
1t was a trick which the clergyman
himself had taught, her. and which she
rn~~en~nT Suri~g their twenty
years of separation, to practice once
I hs4 eeIoveu master.
The farmer conse nted to part with Di-
ana for a small sum, and she was wei
coined hack to the old home amid gene
raj rejoicing There she lived, tenderiy
cared FIR. for several years. and there
she died a nainless death. ~expending her
last breath In a vain attempt to lick her
masters hand.-0ur Dumb Animals.