FOUNDER OF HIS RACE 33 



vSent for to see a neighbor's suffering cow ; he arrived, 

 looking wise and solemn, and declared the cow had a 

 disease called "hollow-horn." He thereupon split her 

 tail lengthwise and filled the raw opening with salt and 

 pepper.* 



The poor cow died, and none but her barn-mates knew 

 the distressing fact that she had really died of "hollow 

 stomach," not "hollow horn," because their owner was so 

 cruelly economical with food ! 



It was with no little sorrow that True recognized the 

 coarse, rasping voice of the "doctor" when he came to 

 see Ceph late one evening. 



Through a crack in their darkening stalls True espied 

 the red-hot crow-bar, and the guttering tallow dip Silas 

 had lighted and brought from the kitchen. 



Piebald Ceph had always been a mild-tempered horse, 

 but scarce had the firing-iron touched his hock than he 

 sent it — and the candle — flying into the hayloft, with an 

 unexpected and well-directed kick. 



Before a horse could have whinneyed the place was in 

 flames, the dry hay dropping in blazing bunches from 

 overhead. 



A diabolic scene followed ! 



Seconds passed like hours. 



True jerked his halter loose in terror, snapping the 

 rope sharply ; his heart almost ceased to beat, he was so 

 frightened. Gipsey, locked in her stall, uttered a scream, 

 as horses sometimes do when overcome with fear: old 

 Ceph, crowding into the extreme corner of his stable, 

 groaned pitifully. 



It was like a roaring furnace, the heat intense, the 

 smoke suffocating. 



The shouting of the men was drowned in the con- 

 fusel mingling of horrible sounds as the flames leaped 



* Once a common practice among the negroes of the South. 



