166 THIRTIETH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



won the ribbon at the fair, which he desired his daughter to 

 break for riding-. She entered upon the task, came to a com- 

 mon acquaintance with the animal, fed and handled him and 

 so familiarized him with her presence that she finally mount- 

 ed him. After exercising - him a few days in the yard, she 

 ventured to the neighbors, and after a while made longer jour- 

 neys. Once on returning she felt the girth gradually slack 

 and loosen, the saddle slip, and unable both to control the colt 

 and maintain her seat, she clung desperately to the mane. As 

 she approached her home she shouted to her father to stop the 

 colt, but he simply slid the carriage house door, through which 

 the colt with rider rushed, and just inside she slipped and fell 

 violently upon her hands and knees. The father caught the 

 colt, calmed him, tightened the saddle, and then requested his 

 daughter to remount. So with bleeding hands and bruised 

 knees she mounted, rode out a mile or more and came back 

 with the frightened animal subdued, quiet and tractable 

 again. The father wisely considered the temporary bruises 

 of his daughter slight in comparison to the damage to the colt 

 in having his head in time of fright.. 



Next to the discipline that comes from hard work, perhaps 

 the greatest discipline that comes to a boy is the reflex train- 

 ing that results from training animals. That which brings 

 out the qualities of confidence, of self control, of mastery, 

 comes through training something else. In all probability 

 the marvelous powers of generalship displayed by Alexander 

 the Great were aided in their bringing out by breaking the 

 famous horse Bucephalus. Every boy on the farm ought to 

 have a dog or a colt to train or a pair of steers to break. One 

 day last summer my attention was attracted to a boy and a 

 pair of steers on the street of one of our small cities. Such a 

 sight in the streets of our country villages is not unusual, but 

 it certainly was an unusual sight in that city. But the un- 

 commonness of the spectacle was not so attractive as the ap- 

 parent confidence of the steers in their master and his absolute 

 unconsciousness that he was doing anything unusual. It was 

 a sight to be admired and a scene for an artist. The steers 

 were Holsteins, black with generous patches of white on 

 shoulder and flank, a white crescent adorning the forehead of 

 each, with evenly turned horns, their backs were straight, 

 legs clean, rumps full, heads shapely and eyes as gentle as a 

 dove's. The}- were a prize pair and handled b}* a prize boy. 

 He was cleanly dressed, had guileless e3'es, a wholesome face, 

 lithe limbs, supple build and was a manly fellow who marched 

 beside his steers with the same air of self-possession that a 

 business man carries to his office. Later I saw the same boy 

 on another street with his friends attached to a cart. As 



