108 AROUND AN OLD HOMESTEAD. 



mental apprehension may be, as compared with our 

 own supposedly superior make-up, I fondly believe that 

 they find life as we find it, and perhaps have, in their 

 own way, the same perplexities and the same solace. 



I think we should treat our beasts well. As I 

 have had the care of horses in various places, I have 

 noticed how evident was their appreciation of any little 

 kindness done to them, as the gift of an apple; and 

 I have never found that I could manage them any 

 the less easily for it. The command to observe the 

 Sabbath is just as binding upon the horse as upon his 

 master. None of the ten is more openly broken than 

 that. I have been glad to observe many exceptions 

 to it, but it is not all of our beasts of burden that have 

 their Sabbaths. Yet the command went out: "Remem- 

 ber the Sabbath-day, to keep it holy . . . in it 

 thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor 

 thy daughter, thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, 

 nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy 

 gates." A love for animals, a sense of our kinship 

 with all the animate world, is one of the most refining 

 influences of life. "The merciful man is merciful to 

 his beast." 



When one looks upon the proud form and bearing, 

 the beautiful eyes, the erect carriage, and the superb 

 mane and tail of a horse, one is moved to the greatest 

 admiration. It is no wonder that the author of the 

 Book of Job loved the horse. I like to see them roll 

 and kick up their heels, and then start to graze at 

 once on the grass and clover. A horse that can roll 

 over and back again is, according to the old saying, 

 worth a clean hundred any day. 



This noblest beast of burden, the horse, has re- 



