Year: 1873




whose house we live, had been called
away early, and wanted TO know if /
would see 10 his horse through the day.


/ knew Mr.. Silver owned horse, be-
cause occasionally saw him drive it
out of the yard, and L saw the stable
every day, but what kind of horse it
was didn't know. / never went into
the stable for two reasons in the first
place 1 had no desire to, and secondly,
didn't know that the horse cared par
ticuIar for company


l never took care of horse in my
life, and had l been of less hopeful
nature, the charge Mr.. Silver had left
me with might have had very de-
pressing eff ct, bat told Mrs. Perkins
would do it.


"You know how to take care of u
horse, don't You p said she.


I gave her a reassuring wink. In fact,
knew so little about it, that l didn't
think it safe to converse more fuently
than by winks.


After breakfast I seized a toothpick
and walked out to the stable. There
was nothing particular to do, as Silver
had given him his breakfast, and 1
found him eating it, so 1 looked around.
The horse looked around too, and
stared pretty hard at me. There was
but little said on either side. l hunted
up the location of the feed, and then
sat down on a peck measure, and fell
to studying the beast. There is a wide
difference in horses. Some of them
will kick you over, and never look
around to see what becomes of you.
don't like a disposition like that. and
wondered if Stiver's horse was one of
them.


When I came home at night l went
straight TO the stable. The animal was
there all right. Silver hadn't told me
what to give him for dinner, and 1 had
not given the subject any thought but
went to the oat box and filled the
peck measure, and sailed up to the
manger.


When he saw the oats he almost
smiled this pleased and amused him.
/ emptied them into the trough, and
left him above me to admire the way /
parted my hair behind. l Just got my
head MP in time to save the whole of it.
He had his ears back, his mouth open,
and looked as if on the point of COM
mitting murder. 1 went out and filed
the measure e Eain, and climbed up the
side of the stall and emptied on top of
him. He brought his head up so sud
denly at this that l Immediately got
down, letting so of everything to do it.
1 struck on the sharp edge of a barrel
and rolled over n couple of times, and
then disappeared under a hay cutter.
The peck measure went down on the
other side, and got mysteriously tan
gled up in that animals heels, and he
went to work ut it, and then ensued the
most dreadful noise / ever heard in my
life, and have been married eighteen
years.


1t did seem as if / never would get
out from that hay cutter, and all the
while 1 was struggling and wrenching
myself and the cutter apart, that awful
beast was kicking around in that stall,
and making the most appalling sounds
imaginable


When 1 got out, / found Mrs. Per-
kins at the door She had heard the
racket, and had sped out to the stable,
her only thought of me and three stove
lids which she had under her arm, and
one of which she was about to fire at
the beast.


This made me mad.


"Go away, you unfortunate idiot, /
shouted, "do you want to knock my
brains out ?" for ] remembered seeing
Mrs. Perkins sling a missile once be
fore, and that 1 nearly lost the ues of
an eye by the operation, although
standing on the opposite side of the
house at the time.


She retired at once. And at the same
time the animal quieted down, but
there was nothing left on the peck
measure, not even the makers name.


/ followed Mrs. Perkins into the
house, and had her do me up, and then
1 sat down on a chair, and fell into a
profound train of meditation. After
awhile 1 felt better and went out to the
stable again. The horse was leaning
against the stable stall, with his eyes
partly closed, and appeared to be very
much engrossed in thought.


"Step off to the left" said, rub
bing my back.


He didn't step. I got the pitchfork
and punched him IN the leg with the
handle He Immediately raised up
both hind legs at once, and that fork
few ont of my hands. and went rattling
up against the timbers above, and came
down again in an instant, the end of
the handle rapping me with such force
on the top of the head that 1 sat right
down on the floor, under the impress
sion that | was standing in front of a
drug store in the evening I went back
into the house, and got some more stuff
on me. But the Perkins grit was up in
me, and couldn't keep away from the
stable. / went out there again. The
thought struck me that what the an
imal wanted was exercise. If that
thought had been an empty glycerine
can, it would have saved a windfall of
luck for me.


But exercise would tone him down,
and exercise I.m 7 should. 1 laughed
at myself II think how I would trounce
him around the yard. didn't laugh
again that afternoon. l got him un-
hitched, and tuen wondered how was
to get him out of the stall without car
rying him o4t. i pushed, but he
wouldn't bIdge. | stood looking at
him IN the face, thinking of something
appropriate t. say, when he suddenly
solved the li!culty by veering about
and plunging TOR the door. / followed
as matter Of course, because | had a
tight hold of the rope, and hit about
every partition stud worth speaking of
on that side Of the barn. Mrs. Perkins
was at the VIII low and saw us come out
of the door. She subsequently remark
ed that we came out skipping like two
innocent children. The skipping was
quite unintentional on my part. I felt
as if stood on the verge of eternity;
my legs may have skipped, but my
mind was filled with awe.


I took that animal out to exercise
him. he exercised me before he got
through with it. He went around a
few times in a circle, then he stopped
suddenly, spread out his fore legs and
looked at me. Then he leaned forward
a little. and hoisted both hind legs, and
threw about two coal hods of mud over
a line full of clothes Mrs. Perkins had
Just hung ont.


That excellent lady had taken asposi-
tion at the window, and whenever the
evOlutions of the awful beast permitted
1t caught glance at her features.
She appeared to be very much inter
ested IN the proceedings, but the in
stant that the mud flew, she disap-
peared from the window, and moment
later she appeared on the stoop with a
long poker IN her hand, and fire enough
T.ah hnr 20,