40 HORSE PORTRAITURE. 



the course of the river for a while, but would finally rest 

 where water, prairie and timber formed a harmonious 

 picture that would have delighted an artist. There was 

 no mistaking the look, or the nod of satisfaction he in- 

 variably gave, as he sprang off in the brisk trot to make 

 amends for the lost time. I told you that next to family 

 and friends I thought more of him than aught else. It 

 may be foolish, weak and wicked, thus to speak of an ani- 

 mal, rating him above, and holding a place in my affec- 

 tions before many created in the image of the Great Archi- 

 tect, ; yet when I recount what he has done for me, you, 

 at least, will understand the feelings that prompt me. 

 From penury and a dark prospect, with a helpless family 

 depending on me as their only means of support, he 

 has raised me to comparative affluence. From a load 

 of debt that would have bound me as with a three-fold 

 cord in durance, that the results of even successful 

 labor would have been unable for a long series of years 

 to lighten, he has freed me. For a pleasant home, where 

 the birds sing in the grand old oaks, where the bee sips 

 the honey from the sweet scented cherry and the flower- 

 ing fragrant crab-apple ; where the sun shines so brightly 

 in the windows of a morning, and gilds with refulgent 

 glory the opposite bluffs in the evening ; where the placid 

 river runs so silently to the sea, with wooded islands on 

 its bosom, that look like floating fairy gardens ; where 

 colts are gamboling in the green fields, where peace, con- 

 tentment and happiness dwell for all this I am indebted 

 to him. Would it add to his happiness never to have a 

 saddle or harness on his back, he should never wear the 

 bonds of servitude again ; but active life is what he enjoys. 

 No matter how large a box you confine him in, he frets 

 like the prisoner of Chillon, and would soon wear even a 

 stone floor in his uneasiness. He must acquire more than 



