Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-04-18
Aunt Dorothy's Letter

Dear Children:
After reading a lot Of your interesting
letters the other day turned my face to
the window, thinking over what you had
said. when a splendid carriage rolled by,
drawn by a span of bay horses that were
as handsome one could wish to see
They pranced along in the sunshine, at
tracing great attention from all passers
by. l thought of the great and important
part that the horse plays In all of our az
fairs. and how little we think of and DO for
him compared with the service and COM
fort he gives US When we realize how i'm
portant part the horse has held in build
ing, in agriculture in travel and in war we
cannot help wondering whether we would
not have been much longer In reaching our
present stage Of civilization without his
help.
l wish that I had time and space to tell
you all that l could of a country boy whom
I once knew who by kindness alone taught
q colt given to him by his father to do al
most anything that a horse could do. This
horse was once in the yard with his owner,
who asked him to come into the house.
and the boy. leading the way, was followed
by the horse up the steps, onto the porch,
into the house, then out and down the
steps again
Among other tricks the boy taught his
morse TO jump over d poie dETdIiSeo dt
varying heights from the ground. He
would drive two notched posts into the
ground and place pole in the notches be-
tween the posts. Then he would say to oils
horse, which was without halter or bride,
Take position, Tom" and the horse would
go back short distance from the pole,
just like a boy or a man, and get ready
to make a running jump. Again he would
say Jump it. Tom when the horse would
run to the pole and by a well-considered
leap clear 1t and come to his master to
get an apple or some other dainty from his
hand. Then the pole would be raised
notch or two higher and Tom would be
commanded to take position, and the same
performance would be gone through with
before. When the pole got too high for
Tom to jump 1t he would take position and
make a run for the pole but stop without
an attempt to jump, and going to his mas
ter would put his nose on his arm, begging
to be let OFF, from what he felt he could
not accomplish.
l once knew a horse named Dolly, who
was 50 gentle and of such kindly DISPOSE
ton that it was said she was never known
to turn her ears backward. She was kept
in stable the door of which was fastened
by pin. Dolly soon learned that by push
ing against the door she could work the
pin out and so open the door. She used to
do this when she got thirsty and wanted to
go out to get q drink of water. One night
her colt while lying down, got its feet in
some way under the partition or floor
boards and could not get up. When Dolly
pin out of it's place and opening the door
went to the gate of the yard about the
house and paved at it, trying to open 1t,
whinnying many times. Soon her master
heard her and got up to see what the
matter She started back to the stable,
leading him to the door. where he saw the
condition of the colt, and loosened the
boards SO 1t could get up Then Dolly gave
a neigh of thanks and was quiet and con-
tent This is true story. Dolly lived to
be over twenty-four years old, and to the
day of her death seemed to love to have
children about her.
Before closing let me add that we have
had so many pretty letters from the chill
dren recently that we feel we owe you all
a vote of thanks. and we promise you ali
some very interesting contributions to next
months story club and letter box from this
months budget of hundreds of letters. Do
not stop writing to us, each months
budget gives stories for you to enjoy
next month. Yours sincerely,
DOROTHY DAY.