314 HORSE AND MAN. 



On his return, he asked to see the animal, which had 

 evidently returned to its vicious ways, and was 

 challenged to enter its box without speaking. He 

 unhesitatingly did so, and was cordially greeted by 

 the horse, who knew his step. 



He was allowed to take the horse to the troop 

 stables, and found it in reality so well and strong, 

 that two days afterwards it carried him through one 

 of the late Lord Cardigan's very trying field days with 

 even more than ordinary vigour. 



It was found afterwards that the horse, as is 

 usually the case, had been made vicious by brutal 

 treatment. He was a well-bred, high-spirited animal, 

 and had been placed in the regiment when very 

 young. He was fortunate enough at first to fall into 

 the hands of a kind master who made a pet of him, 

 and in consequence he was docile and affectionate. 

 But his master died, and he fell into the hands of 

 men who looked upon a horse merely as a machine, 

 and could not understand that it possessed feelings. 



Not having been accustomed to ill-usage, the horse 

 naturally resented it, and before long had learned to 

 look upon man as its natural enemy, which could only 

 be kept from hurting it by being made afraid of it. 

 But, when at last a man refused to avenge himself as 

 he might have done, and resumed the kind treatment 

 to which it had been accustomed, its better nature 



