d a piece of
their tails cut off, and the soft flap of their pretty little ears was
cut quite off. How their mother licked them, and how troubled she was,
poor thing! I never forgot it. They healed in time, and they forgot the
pain, but the nice soft flap, that of course was intended to protect the
delicate part of their ears from dust and injury, was gone forever. Why
don't they cut their own children's ears into points to make them look
sharp? Why don't they cut the end off their noses to make them look
plucky? One would be just as sensible as the other. What right have they
to torment and disfigure God's creatures?"

Sir Oliver, though he was so gentle, was a fiery old fellow, and what
he said was all so new to me, and so dreadful, that I found a bitter
feeling toward men rise up in my mind that I never had before. Of course
Ginger was very much excited; she flung up her head with flashing
eyes and distended nostrils, declaring that men were both brutes and
blockheads.

"Who talks about blockheads?" said Merrylegs, who just came up from
the old apple-tree, where he had been rubbing himself against the low
branch. "Who talks about blockheads? I believe that is a bad word."

"Bad words were made for bad things," said Ginger, and she told him what
Sir Oliver had said.

"It is all true," said Merrylegs sadly, "and I've seen that about the
dogs over and over again where I lived first; but we won't talk about
it here. You know that master, and John and James are always good to
us, and talking against men in such a place as this doesn't seem fair
or grateful, and you know there are good masters and good grooms beside
ours, though of course ours are the best."

This wise speech of good little Merrylegs, which we knew was quite true,
cooled us all down, especially Sir Oliver, who was dearly fond of his
master; and to turn the subject I said, "Can any one tell me the use of
blinkers?"

"No!" said Sir Oliver shortly, "because they are no use."

"They are supposed," said Justice, the roan cob, in his calm way, "to
prevent horses from shying and starting, and getting so frightened as to
cause accidents."

"Then what is the reason they do not put them on riding horses;
especially on ladies' horses?" said I.

"There is no reason at all," said he quietly, "except the fashion; they
say that a horse would be so frightened to see the wheels of his own
cart or carriage coming behind him that he would be sure to run away,
alt