34 JUSTIN MORGAN 



and licked the dry hay and caught the weU-seasoned tim- 

 bers. 



The horrid odor of burnt hair, a sudden silence in 

 Ceph's stall, told a heart-rending tale. The echoes of 

 his mother s cry had hardly died away when True felt 

 a cool, wet cloth thrown over his eyes and held tightly ; 

 something struck him violently, and a voice spoke to him 

 in such a tone of command that he forgot everything and, 

 trembling like a leaf, allowed himself to be led into the 

 outer air. 



Then, vaguely at first, he recognized Mistress Whit- 

 man's tones, soothing now, and tender, albeit very shaky ! 



''Come, my little pet, there's naught to fear now !" 



And, trusting her, the colt followed tractably enough 

 as she led him up two stone steps into the kitchen and 

 took the bandage from his eyes. 



Then she hurried out, closing the door tight. 



An awful crash, a sudden greater roar, then ominous 

 silence — the barn roof had fallen in! 



"Alas, my poor mother !" groaned True. 



The rattling of a tin pan at his side made him turn ; 

 to his everlasting joy he saw Gipsey, safe and sound as 

 himself, shut up in the kitchen. 



Gipsey was an excitable mare, and began to prance 

 about the place in an unseemly way, switching kettles 

 and pewter pots off the table with her nervous tail and 

 knocking them to the floor with a monstrous racket. 



Finally she pushed the cover from the swinging pot 

 on the crane. Luckily the fire had been out some time 

 and the delicious contents of the pot barely warm, else 

 she would have had her nose burned. The odor of the 

 mash proved very enticing and she was greedily, or maybe 

 thoughtlessly, about to drink it all, when True pushed 

 her one side, as if to remind her of her manners, and 



