THE HORSE 99 



preference, a mare, which it was quite the custom to choose 

 of a white color. In the course of a few hours the creatures 

 would learn to know their guide, and to follow the leader with 

 so little trouble that two men could conduct a throne of sev- 

 eral hundred. Nevertheless, if the foremost mule of the 

 procession turned aside, all the others would blindly follow 

 him in the manner of a flock of sheep. 



I recall an amusing instance of this " follow-my-leader " 

 motive which occurred many years ago in a way somewhat 

 personal to myself, in southern Kentucky. Engaged in sur- 

 vey work, I was passing along a quiet road when in the dis- 

 tance I heard a thunder of hoofs, and in a moment saw a 

 great drove of mules, the appointed leader of which, a man on 

 a white horse, had fallen to the rear of the column. The 

 creatures, thinking that it was their duty to overtake the miss- 

 ing master, were going on the full run. Heeding the shouts 

 of the troubled herder, I turned my wagon across the road, 

 which, being at that point very narrow, was effectually barri- 

 caded by the vehicle. Although the rush was so wild that the 

 brutes nearly overset my " outfit," they were brought to a full 

 stop. Unhappily, on one side of the road and one hundred 

 feet or so from it, there was a comfortably built southern 

 house, with a broad gallery extending along the front ; while 

 in the door of the mansion were some women who had been 

 attracted by the tumult. No sooner had the mob of mules been 

 brought to a state of surging quiet, than one of the creatures 

 jumped the picket fence, and started for the open house-door, 

 thinking, perhaps, that he would find some peace of life in 

 what probably seemed to him his accustomed barn. In much 

 less time than it takes to tell it, a hundred or more mules 

 were on the gallery, the floor of which gave way beneath 



