A RIDE WITH A MAD HORSE IN A CAR. 211 



liiiii to frenzy or blinding him ^yitll fear; but 

 touches, soft and gentle as a woman's, caressing 

 words, and oats given from the open palm, and 

 unfailing kindness, were the means I used to ' sul)- 

 jugate' him. Sweet subjugation, both to him 

 who subdues and to him who yields ! The wild, 

 unmannerly, and unmanageable colt, the /ear of 

 horsemen the country round, finding in you, not 

 an enemy but a friend, receiving his daily food 

 from you, and all those little ' nothings ' which go 

 as far with a horse as a woman, to win and retain 

 affection, grows to look upon you as his protector 

 and friend, and testifies in countless ways his fond- 

 ness for you. So' when I saw tliis horse, with 

 action so free and motion so graceful, amid that 

 storm of bullets, my heart involuntarily went out 

 to lier, and my feelings rose higher and higher at 

 every lea]3 she took from amid the whirlwind of 

 fire and lead. And as she plunged at last over 

 a little hillock out of range and came careering 

 toward me as only a riderless horse might come, 

 her head flung, wildly from side to side, her nostrils 

 widely spread, her flank and shoulders flecked with 

 foam, her eye dilating, I forgot my wound and all 

 the wild roar of battle, and, lifting myself invol- 

 untarily to a sitting posture as she swept grandly 

 by, gave her a ringing cheer. 



" Perhaps in the sound of a human voice of 

 happy mood amid the awful din she recognized a 



