, as if
superciliously refraining from close contact, on the trail this horse
took to revealing his antagonism. He would stand a short way from him
while they grazed, lay back his ears and whisk his tail, and, whenever
the chance came, he would snap viciously at the other horses. Pat
understood the meaning of all this, and held himself ready to resist
attack, yet he simply looked at the horse with a kind of amused
speculation. Nor at any time did he feel grave apprehension. That he did
not take the horse seriously lay in the fact that after drawing near in
this fashion and bristling nastily the white horse would quickly draw
away again, steadily and craftily, and then fall to worrying one of the
other horses, usually one of smaller size that quite obviously feared
him.

There came the time when the white did not confine his threatenings to
the grazing-periods. He became aggressive on the march. Though less free
to give battle here, which was possibly his reason, he would frequently
jockey close, and either flash his head around with teeth snapping, or
else, as if to make Pat feel inferiority, would plunge forward to a
point immediately in front, and in this position fling back choking dust
or gravel. At such times the round-faced man, the white's master, would
drag him away mightily, or, if he was not quick enough, then the sorrel,
drowsing along behind on a lead-rope, would unconsciously offer
resistance. But it was all very disagreeable, and Pat, while finding
that it broke up the monotony of the journey, yet at length found
himself also becoming irritated.

He finally gave way to it. It was his nature to brood over annoyances
and sometimes to heap grains of injustice into mountains of woes. He
fell to thinking of his general lot, his misfortunes, the lack of proper
food, the occasional lack of water, until he became sullen and peevish.
The change showed in sudden starts at unusual sounds which brought sharp
protests from his young master, and then he began to refuse to eat. This
was grave, and he knew it. But he could not or would not help it; he
never knew quite which it was. But he did not eat. Instead of moving
about with the other horses, nose to ground, mouthing the bunch-grass,
he would mope by himself well away from the other horses, standing with
head hanging and ears inert, all in motionless silence. As the
water-holes became farther apart, and the grazing worse yet, he did this
more and more, until the wh