ardly full grown. I
lived then in a house with very low windows, and the pretty mare was
grazing on the outside. One warm day, the windows were all open, and I
was sitting at work, when she popped her beautiful head and neck in at
the one nearest to me. I gave her a bit of bread that was lying by me,
and told her to go away; but she would not. I said to myself, "Why
should I drive her away? God made the animals to be loving and confiding
towards man; and if this lonely creature wants me to be a friend to her,
why should I not? The Bible says, 'A righteous man regardeth the life of
his beast;' and what is life to a poor animal that has no hereafter to
look to, if its life be without comforts?" So I put down my work, and
went and rubbed her forehead, stroked her long white face, patted her
shining neck, and talked to her. After this when I was alone at my
morning work, she was sure to put her head in at one of the windows, to
ask, in her dumb way, to be petted; and many an apple, many a handful
of oats, did she get by coming there. She would soon listen for my
footstep about the house, and I seldom could look out from any window
without seeing her under it, or before it. She would also follow me like
a dog when I walked in the grounds where she grazed.

[Illustration]

One day, a gentleman's groom undertook to ride her; but he began by
whipping and by jerking the bridle, which is a very cruel thing. My mare
did not like this; and as he went on doing it, she lost her patience;
and after a long trial as to who should be master, she threw him over
her head, and trotted home to her stable. He was not hurt, but very much
mortified, being a soldier, and a great horseman; and he told his master
that she was the most vicious beast in the world, not safe for anybody
to ride. I did not like my pretty mare to get such a bad name: so I told
my own groom to put on the side saddle, and I asked the gentleman to
mount his fine English horse, and to ride out, and see if she were not
easily managed. We had a long ride over mountains, and through little
streams, and crossing deep torrents by the unsteady bridges made of
trunks of trees, and he said he never saw an animal so full of spirit
and good-temper as my mare. I never touched her with the whip, but spoke
gently to her; and I can truly say, that for the year and a half of my
riding her every day, she never brought me into danger, nor ever
disobeyed me. You may say, "But this was a par