A Ride With A Mad Horse In A Freight-Car: 1898Murray, W. H. H. (William Henry Harrison)
History
A Ride With A Mad Horse In A Freight-Car: 1898
Murray, W. H. H. (William Henry Harrison)
Short stories
"That night our brigade made its bivouac just over Long Bridge, almost
on the identical spot where four years before I had camped my company of
three months' volunteers. With what experiences of march and battle were
those four years filled! For three of these years Gulnare had been my
constant companion. With me she had shared my tent, and not rarely my
rations, for in appetite she was truly human, and my steward always
counted her as one of our 'mess.' Twice had she been wounded--once at
Fredericksburg, through the thigh; and once at Cold Harbor, where a
piece of shell tore away a part of her scalp. So completely did it stun
her, that for some months I thought her dead, but to my great joy she
shortly recovered her senses. I had the wound carefully dressed by our
brigade surgeon, from whose care she came in a month with the edges of
the wound so nicely united that the eye could with difficulty detect the
scar. This night, as usual, she lay at my side, her head almost touching
mine. Never before, unless when on a raid and in face of the enemy, had
I seen her so uneasy. Her movements during the night compelled
wakefulness on my part. The sky was cloudless, and in the dim light I
lay and watched her. Now she would stretch herself at full length, and
rub her head on the ground. Then she would start up, and, sitting on her
haunches, like a dog, lift one foreleg and paw her neck and ears. Anon
she would rise to her feet and shake herself, walk off a few rods,
return and lie down again by my side. I did not know what to make of it,
unless the excitement of the day had been too much for her sensitive
nerves. I spoke to her kindly and petted her. In response she would rub
her nose against me, and lick my hand with her tongue--a peculiar habit
of hers--like a dog. As I was passing my hand over her head, I
discovered that it was hot, and the thought of the old wound flashed
into my mind, with a momentary fear that something might be wrong about
her brain, but after thinking it over I dismissed it as incredible.
Still I was alarmed. I knew that something was amiss, and I rejoiced at
the thought that I should soon be at home where she could have quiet,
and, if need be, the best of nursing. At length the morning dawned, and
the mare and I took our last meal together on Southern soil--the last we
ever took together.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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