SHADOW & SCYTHE BENEATH SWORD 3 1 3 



felt quite sure that the illness of my poor horse was 

 due, or entirely due, to this disease. With generous 

 workers, human or equine, there is always the 

 danger of overwork. It was Father Hugenard, one 

 of the leaders of the giants among the workers of 

 Canada, who, when he found himself stricken with 

 sudden physical failing, said to me, " No, I have not 

 done well ; had I done well I should not now be 

 unable to work. To be imprudent is not to do 

 well." In taking full measure of the splendid 

 swiftness, the great heart, the generous nature of one 

 of the noblest and most lovable horses I can remember, 

 amongst many in the Old Country and the new, 

 undoubtedly there had been imprudence. I was 

 so proud of his speed and the splendid way he 

 charged Troy Hill. Felicity takes it in just the 

 same way, only Dick was so young, younger than I 

 knew ; and in any case one should never take all 

 a three-year-old will give. I sent for Dr. Creamer 

 the well-known horse-surgeon of South Qu'Appelle, 

 and he thought rest and special food and tonic 

 might pull him through, and that it was altogether 

 best for him to be out. So he remained with his 

 favourite Nancy and Felicity in the pasture ; but 

 although Felicity was kind, Nancy, to whom he 

 had always been so good, was cool. Horses are 

 selfish in their affection for each other ; the old 

 and the sick usually walk alone. But although 

 through the end of the summer and the early fall 

 Ricky was happy " in the quiet of green grass," and 

 eating voraciously of the luxuriant herbage of the 

 slough, he became thinner and thinner, and the 

 shadow came nearer in the depths of his kind eyes. 



