Mistress Jones rose heavily, and squeezed the water from her skirts, shaking, humble and sobered. “It served me right, husband dear,” she wailed at last. “I have ever been what those savages called me, ‘a dirty blouze of a thing,’ but from now on I am a changed woman and will be a better wife to you. The Indians said they would teach me a lesson--and they have!” CHAPTER XIII. THE MORGAN GOES TO MONTPELIER TO LIVE. Sometimes Justin Morgan rode his horse to Williston to visit his friend, the Hon. Lemuel Bottom, who was a lover of good horses; sometimes they went to Hinesburgh, a short distance from Burlington. They were constantly on the go from one town to another, meeting new people and horses and having fresh experiences. Hinesburgh was a quiet little village, and, although there were two saw-mills, they did not have “bees” as they did at Randolph; the scenery was beautiful, and the bedding so good that Morgan enjoyed his trips in spite of the lack of excitement which he had grown to love at Chase’s Mill. His first military experience was when he took his place under an empty saddle in the procession that conducted the body of Col. Israel Converse to his grave. Colonel Converse had been a brave soldier and greatly beloved by his townspeople; over his open grave Morgan heard for the first time a military salute and smelled the acrid odor of gunpowder. For a long time he was thrilled by the memory. As time increased Master Morgan’s health declined rapidly; in 1795-96 he grew too weak to work, and sold his horse to one William Rice, of Woodstock, who in turn sold him to Jonathan Shepard, a sturdy blacksmith living in the little town of Montpelier. Shepard was also landlord of the Farmer’s Inn, which stood within a doughnut’s toss of his forge. He was an energetic, thrifty man, and Colonel Davis engaged him to do some clearing on his farm, seeing that he now had a good strong young horse. Thus Morgan once more became a farm-horse, but as Shepard was well to do and kind, he fared well in his new home. His dinner in a pail, and oats in a sack for the Morgan, Shepard would go out for a day’s plowing or clearing the while Mistress Shepard remained at home to serve customers at the Inn. A “halloo” from the forge would make the blacksmith hurry back to aid a passing traveller whose horse had cast a shoe or whose wagon or “shay” needed mending. He would leave the Morgan in the care of Maximus Fabius Davis, the son of Colonel Davis, who--as boys went, in Morgan’s estimation--was pleasant enough. Morgan was ever fond of men and women, already grown, but the stage of childhood, required to develop them into such, did not seem to interest him.