32 JUSTIN MORGAN 



CHAPTER III. 

 ceph's unhappy fate. 



Never had Ceph been treated kindly by anyone ; he'd 

 never had ''half a chance in life," as Gipsey said. No- 

 body ever praised him, everybody blamed him, and he 

 had nothing but blows and hard words for his portion. 

 Even his food, which always came irregularly, had to 

 be gobbled, for fear time enough to eat it comfortably 

 would not be given him ! Nobody ever rubbed him down 

 when he was hot and tired, and his work was harder and 

 more exacting that that of the other two. 



For the most part he took it philosophically, with only 

 an occasional groan until, perhaps, he saw better food 

 measured out for his neighbors than was measured out 

 for him, then he stamped and grunted and sometimes bit 

 at them, crossly. 



For many years he had been subject to spavin, at times 

 his hock swelled badly and he went lame and limped 

 painfully. At last Silas could close his eyes no longer 

 to the fact that unless something were done for the old 

 horse he would become entirely useless. 



In Springfield a horse doctor lived who knew, among 

 other things, how to ''fire" a spavined hock. True had 

 once seen this man thrust a sharp knife into a horse's 

 mouth who had lampers ; the flow of warm red blood had 

 made the colt shudder and, remembering this, he was 

 very sorry when he found out this cruel person was to 

 visit Ceph. 



Gipsey recalled that this Dr. Quack had once been 



