he
thought I should have good food and fair work. In the first he was quite
right, and if my master had always been on the premises I do not think
I should have been overloaded, but there was a foreman who was always
hurrying and driving every one, and frequently when I had quite a full
load he would order something else to be taken on. My carter, whose name
was Jakes, often said it was more than I ought to take, but the other
always overruled him. "'Twas no use going twice when once would do, and
he chose to get business forward."

Jakes, like the other carters, always had the check-rein up, which
prevented me from drawing easily, and by the time I had been there three
or four months I found the work telling very much on my strength.

One day I was loaded more than usual, and part of the road was a steep
uphill. I used all my strength, but I could not get on, and was obliged
continually to stop. This did not please my driver, and he laid his whip
on badly. "Get on, you lazy fellow," he said, "or I'll make you."

Again I started the heavy load, and struggled on a few yards; again the
whip came down, and again I struggled forward. The pain of that great
cart whip was sharp, but my mind was hurt quite as much as my poor
sides. To be punished and abused when I was doing my very best was
so hard it took the heart out of me. A third time he was flogging me
cruelly, when a lady stepped quickly up to him, and said in a sweet,
earnest voice:

"Oh! pray do not whip your good horse any more; I am sure he is doing
all he can, and the road is very steep; I am sure he is doing his best."

"If doing his best won't get this load up he must do something more than
his best; that's all I know, ma'am," said Jakes.

"But is it not a heavy load?" she said.

"Yes, yes, too heavy," he said; "but that's not my fault; the foreman
came just as we were starting, and would have three hundredweight more
put on to save him trouble, and I must get on with it as well as I can."

He was raising the whip again, when the lady said:

"Pray, stop; I think I can help you if you will let me."

The man laughed.

"You see," she said, "you do not give him a fair chance; he cannot use
all his power with his head held back as it is with that check-rein; if
you would take it off I am sure he would do better--do try it," she said
persuasively, "I should be very glad if you would."

"Well, well," said Jakes, with a short laugh, "anything to please a
la