Americans -- England -- Fiction; World War, 1914-1918 -- England -- Fiction
'No, sir--that's the extr'ord'nary part of it. He comes right back to
the stables to me and pulls up short. I goes up and looks into that
there sinful eye. "You hulk o' misery," I says; "you willainous son of a
abandoned sire!" You know, sir, I always likes to make a hoss feel real
bad by telling him what's what, for they got intelligence. Mr. Selwyn, I
should say, by Criky! a 'uman being ain't in the same stall as a hoss for
intelligence.'
'I think you may be right,' said Selwyn decisively.
'May be? There ain't no doubt about it nowise.'
'And what happened to your horse?'
'Ah yes, sir. Well, sir, I gets on 'im, and pullin' 'is face around by
'is ear, I give 'im another look in 'is sinful eye. "Where's Mas'r
Dick?" I says. And--criky!--off 'e goes, lickerty-split, like as if we
was entered for the Derby, and, sure enough, 'e stops right at the ditch
where Mas'r Dick was a-lying all peaceful and muddy like a stiff un.
Well, sir, I gets off and lifts 'im up, and then mounts be'ind 'im, and
that there hoss 'e never moved until I tells 'im, and then 'e goes home
so smooth-like that a old lady could 'ave rid 'im and done 'er knitting
sim'lar. And arter that 'e were as gentle as a lamb, 'e were--and there
'e is right afore your eyes, Mr. Selwyn. He's a old hoss now, and ain't
much to look on, but every morning when I comes in 'e takes a look with
that there bad eye o' hisn and says, just like I says to 'im that day,
"Where's Mas'r Dick?" I sometimes feels so sorry for the old feller that
I swears something horrible just to cheer 'im up.'
With considerable interest, though with a certain doubt as to the strict
authenticity of the narrative, the American looked at the horse, which,
after a melancholy survey of the visitors, vented its grief in an attempt
to bite a large-sized slice from the neck of a neighbour.
'Nah, then, you ---- ---- ----,' remarked Mathews unfeelingly, catching
the old beast a resounding thump on the rump with a stick he carried.
'That'll learn you, you old hulk o' misery.'
'There's a beautiful mare, said the American, pausing at the stall of a
superb charger whose graceful limbs and shapely neck spoke of speed and
spirit.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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