wild posies and for the boys to skip stones or wade in the
water. For _I_ was in no hurry to go on. There was plenty of tender
grass to be cropped by the roadside, and the young leaves of the maples
and white birch were sweet and juicy.

"'Take good care of them, Star,' mistress used to say, standing in the
door-way to see us off; 'you have a precious load, but we trust you,
kind, faithful old friend,'

"And so she might. I knew I must just creep down the hills with those
children behind me, and never stop for a drink at Rocky Brook, though I
were ever so thirsty, because of the sharp pitch down to the
watering-trough. And though from having been scared nearly to death,
when I was a colt, by a wheelbarrow in the road, I always _have_ to shy
a little when I see one, our Ada will tell you, if you ask her, that in
the circumstances, I behaved very well.

"_She_ behaved well. She always chose the well-traveled roads, and gave
me plenty of room to turn. Once, I remember, they all wanted to take a
short cut by way of an old corduroy road; and though, if master had been
driving, I should have made no objection, and, as like as not, with a
little jolting and pitching, we should have got safe over, I didn't feel
like taking the responsibility, with all those young ones along, of
going that way; so I tried to make our Ada understand the state of my
mind, and after a while she did; for she said: 'Well, Star, if you don't
want to draw us over those logs, I'm not going to make you,' Now, wasn't
that sensible?

"Well, if I was proud and happy to be trusted with master's family on
week-days, think how I must have felt of a Sunday morning in the summer
time, with mistress dressed in her silk gown, and our Ada in muslin and
pink ribbons, and the boys in their best clothes, and master riding
along-side on Tom or Jerry, all going to meeting together. I liked
hearing the bells ring, and I liked being hitched under the maple-trees,
with all the neighbors' horses to keep me company. We generally dozed
while the folks were indoors, and woke up brisk and lively, and started
for home in procession.

"But, dear! dear! there came a time when, with five horses on the farm,
not one could be had to give the children a ride or to do a stroke of
work, when master had to foot it to the Corners, and the two steers, Old
Poke and Eyebright, dragged mistress and the children to meeting in the
ox-cart.

"For we were all down with the epizooetic, coug