ame and docile to a proverb, when
_well_ trained, the ox is the most sullen and intractable of animals
when but half broken to the yoke.

I now saw, in my situation, several points of similarity with that of
the oxen. They were property, so was I; they were to be{165} broken,
so was I. Covey was to break me, I was to break them; break and be
broken--such is life.

Half the day already gone, and my face not yet homeward! It required
only two day's experience and observation to teach me, that such
apparent waste of time would not be lightly overlooked by Covey. I
therefore hurried toward home; but, on reaching the lane gate, I met
with the crowning disaster for the day. This gate was a fair specimen
of southern handicraft. There were two huge posts, eighteen inches in
diameter, rough hewed and square, and the heavy gate was so hung on
one of these, that it opened only about half the proper distance. On
arriving here, it was necessary for me to let go the end of the rope on
the horns of the "in hand ox;" and now as soon as the gate was open, and
I let go of it to get the rope, again, off went my oxen--making nothing
of their load--full tilt; and in doing so they caught the huge gate
between the wheel and the cart body, literally crushing it to splinters,
and coming only within a few inches of subjecting me to a similar
crushing, for I was just in advance of the wheel when it struck the
left gate post. With these two hair-breadth escape, I thought I could
sucessfully(sic) explain to Mr. Covey the delay, and avert apprehended
punishment. I was not without a faint hope of being commended for the
stern resolution which I had displayed in accomplishing the difficult
task--a task which, I afterwards learned, even Covey himself would not
have undertaken, without first driving the oxen for some time in the
open field, preparatory to their going into the woods. But, in this I
was disappointed. On coming to him, his countenance assumed an aspect of
rigid displeasure, and, as I gave him a history of the casualties of
my trip, his wolfish face, with his greenish eyes, became intensely
ferocious. "Go back to the woods again," he said, muttering something
else about wasting time. I hastily obeyed; but I had not gone far on my
way, when I saw him coming after me. My oxen now behaved themselves
with singular{166} propriety, opposing their present conduct to my
representation of their former antics. I almost wished, now that Covey
was co