THE TIM BUNKER PAPERS. 187 



This was sad news, though I had been expecting it for 

 several mornings, and not a very good preparation for 

 breakfast, which was already upon the table. I saw it 

 was all over with the old mare, the mother of John s 

 Black Hawk colts, and the faithful family beast of twenty- 

 five years standing. She had been ailing for a fortnight, 

 a little stiff in the joints at first, but nothing alarming 

 considering her years. She had been serviceable up to 

 that time, and though neither so strong nor so swift as in 

 her younger years, was just as good for my purposes as a 

 dozen years ago. When she began to refuse food, I re 

 sorted to the usual remedies, but soon saw that it was of 

 no use. She died in her stall, on the fourth day after 

 refusing food, full of years and full of honors. I own 

 that I set more store by her than anything else that goes 

 upon four legs. I had raised her, and ridden behind her 

 to mill and to meeting for over twenty years. Her dis 

 position was a great deal more human than that of the 

 common run of mankind. She knew her place and her 

 business better. She was so completely under the control 

 of my voice that I never had occasion to strike her a 

 blow. John lived upon her back almost, when he was a 

 boy, and the women could drive her anywhere. She was 

 the first horse John and Sally ever learned to drive, and 

 she was associated in my mind with their childhood. It 

 will go hard with John when he hears the news, down on 

 the Potomac, for old Rose was the companion of all his 

 boyish pleasures, until he was big enough to break colts. 

 There is not a fish pond, or a trout stream, within a dozen 

 miles of home, whither she has not carried him. He can 

 hardly think of a pleasant spot, or a happy day in his 

 childhood, a berrying with his schoolmates, or a visiting 

 with his cousins, without recalling the nimble feet of old 

 Rose. 



It so happened that Sally and her husband were at 

 home on a little visit yesterday, and it seemed to lighten 



