eir mite to his early
development. One morning, while the mare was asleep, the colt, alert and
standing, was startled by the sudden movement of a large rooster. The
rooster had left the ground with loud flapping of wings, and now stood
perched upon the corral fence, like a grim and mighty conqueror,
ruffling his neck feathers and twisting his head in pre-eminent
satisfaction. But the colt did not understand this. Transfixed, he
turned frightened eyes upon the cause of the unearthly commotion. Then
suddenly, with another loud flapping of wings, the rooster uttered a
defiant crow, a challenge that echoed far through the canyon. Whereat
the colt, eyes wide with terror, whirled to his mother, whimpering
babyishly. But with the mare standing beside him and caressing him
reassuringly, all his nervousness left him, and he again turned his eyes
upon the rooster and watched him till the cock, unable to stir combat
among his neighbors, left the fence with another loud flapping of wings,
and returned to earth, physically and spiritually, there to set up his
customary feigned quest for worms for the ladies. But the point was
this--with this last flapping of wings the colt remained in a state of
perfect calm.

Thus he learned, and thus he continued to learn, in nervous fear one
moment, in perfect calm the next. And though his hours of life were few
indeed, he nevertheless revealed an intelligence far above the average
of his kind. He learned to avoid the mare's whisking tail, to shun or
remove molesting flies, to keep away from the mare when she was at the
feed-box. All of which told of his uncommon strain, as did the rapidity
with which he gained strength, which last told of his tremendous
vitality, and which some day would serve him well against trouble.

Yet in it all lurked the great mystery, and Felipe, blustering to
occasional natives outside the fence during his week of debauch, while
pointing out with pride the colt's very evident blooded lineage, yet
could tell nothing of that descent. All he could point out was that the
mare was chestnut-brown, and when not in harness was kept close within
the confines of the corral, while here was a colt of a dark-fawn color
which would develop with maturity into coal-black. And there was not a
single black horse in the mountains for miles and miles around. Nor was
the colt a "throw-back," because--

"Oh, well," he would conclude, casting bleared eyes in the direction of
the house, wea