The Horse, as Comrade and Friend 



for rising ground to enable him to survey the 

 country to look for all possible pals. With 

 ears pricked forward and nostrils compressed, 

 he will search on a clear and sunlit day to the 

 very horizon, and, What Ho ! for a cheery 

 neigh, when he finds them. It's pretty to see 

 the effect. Nothing attracts horses more in- 

 stantly than the distant challenge of a ringing 

 neigh. They may be spread over a field, all 

 with heads down, busy feeding. Instantly 

 every head is up seeking for the source of the 

 sound. They run together, each asking the 

 other as to who this is. Every movement is 

 watched by your nag, his nostrils trembling 

 in the sunhght with excitement. If Disciple 

 has the luck to be a stallion, the thrills on 

 either side are multiplied a thousandfold, and 

 his calls are perfectly splendid to listen to. 

 Then the distant reply comes, thriUing Disciple 

 to the roots of his being. He screams back, 

 with a hoarse grunt at the end of each scream, 

 stamps his foreleg and swings from side to 

 side, but always with his head to the find. 

 The mares, with manes flowing and tails like 

 flags — you can always tell them by this 

 response — dash hither and thither, making 

 beheve they are seeking the protection of the 

 one or two old geldings, their mates. The 

 stallion's scream and roar, as Job said, is as 

 nothing else in creation, and it makes the old 

 geldings peevish and surly, so when their giddy 



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