tic
episode in which Lafe, gripping the handle of a two-tined pitchfork, his
freckled-face greenish-white and the pupils of his eyes wide with the
fear of his own daring, threatened immediate damage to the person of
Farmer Perkins, unless the said Perkins dropped the whip. This Perkins
did. More than that, he fled with ridiculous haste, and in craven
terror; while Lafe, having given the trembling colt a parting caress,
quitted the farm abruptly and for all time.

As for Blue Blazes, two days later he was sold to a travelling
horse-dealer, and departed without any sorrow of farewells. In the weeks
during which he trailed over the fruit district of southern Michigan in
the wake of the horse-buyer, Blue Blazes learned nothing good and much
that was ill. He finished the trip with raw hocks, a hoof-print on his
flank, and teeth-marks on neck and withers. Horses led in a bunch do not
improve in disposition.

Some of the scores the blue-roan colt paid in kind, some he did not, but
he learned the game of give and take. Men and horses alike, he
concluded, were against him. If he would hold his own he must be ready
with teeth and hoofs. Especially he carried with him always a black,
furious hatred of man in general.

So he went about with ears laid back, the whites of his eyes showing,
and a bite or a kick ready in any emergency. Day by day the hate in him
deepened until it became the master-passion. A quick foot-fall behind him
was enough to send his heels flying as though they had been released by
a hair-trigger. He kicked first and investigated afterward. The mere
sight of a man within reaching distance roused all his ferocity.

He took a full course in vicious tricks. He learned how to crowd a man
against the side of a stall, and how to reach him, when at his head, by
an upward and forward stroke of the forefoot. He could kick straight
behind with lightning quickness, or give the hoof a sweeping
side-movement most comprehensive and unexpected. The knack of lifting
the bits with the tongue and shoving them forward of the bridle-teeth
came in time. It made running away a matter of choice.

When it became necessary to cause diversion he would balk. He no longer
cared for whips. Physically and mentally he had become hardened to
blows. Men he had ceased to fear, for most of them feared him and he
knew it. He only despised and hated them. One exception Blue Blazes
made. This was in favor of men and boys with red hair and freck