was hay in their racks which they had not given them; and that the
master's white horse every morning showed signs of having had some
attention paid him that could not be accounted for. The result was
much talk and speculation, suspicion and offence; for all were
jealous of their rights, their duty, and their dignity, in relation
to their horses: no man was at liberty to do a thing to or for any
but his own pair. Even the brightening of the harness-brass, in
which Gibbie sometimes indulged, was an offence; for did it not
imply a reproach? Many were the useless traps laid for the
offender, many the futile attempts to surprise him: as Gibbie never
did anything except for half an hour or so while the men were sound
asleep or at breakfast, he escaped discovery.

But he could not hold continued intercourse with the splendour of
the white horse, and neglect carrying out the experiment on which he
had resolved with regard to the effect of water upon his own skin;
and having found the result a little surprising, he soon got into
the habit of daily and thorough ablution. But many animals that
never wash are yet cleaner than some that do; and, what with the
scantiness of his clothing, his constant exposure to the atmosphere,
and his generally lying in a fresh lair, Gibbie had always been
comparatively clean. Besides, being nice in his mind, he was
naturally nice in his body.

The new personal regard thus roused by the presence of Snowball, had
its development greatly assisted by the scrupulosity with which most
things in the kitchen, and chief of all in this respect, the churn,
were kept. It required much effort to come up to the nicety
considered by Jean indispensable in the churn; and the croucher on
the ceiling, when he saw the long nose advance to prosecute inquiry
into its condition, mentally trembled lest the next movement should
condemn his endeavour as a failure. With his clothes he could do
nothing, alas! but he bathed every night in the Lorrie as soon as
Donal had gone home with the cattle. Once he got into a deep hole,
but managed to get out again, and so learned that he could swim.

All day he was with Donal, and took from him by much the greater
part of his labour: Donal had never had such time for reading. In
return he gave him his dinner, and Gibbie could do very well upon
one meal a day. He paid him also in poetry. It never came into his
head, seeing he never spoke, to teach him to read. He so