FOUNDER OF HIS RACE 115 



plete. Even Goss had his share of these, for every one 

 paid him attentions when he waited outside a house for 

 his rider. He found the pies very palatable, for at the 

 kitchen windows of his women friends he had learned 

 to appreciate many concoctions not usually known to 

 horses. 



Sometimes a lady rode him to meeting in St. Johns- 

 bury.* The meeting house was little larger than his 

 stall, and from where he waited he could hear the 

 preacher shouting forth healthy doctrine in liberal meas- 

 ure w^ith a strong flavor of brimstone. After this the 

 congregation would rise, noisily, as with relief, and sing 

 a hymn at the tops of their voices. Sometimes they 

 sang "]\Iear," which ever reminded Morgan of the Ran- 

 dolph singing-teacher who had been his good friend, and 

 whose name he once bore. 



Vermonters were real Christians in those days and 

 regulations regarding the keeping of the Holy Sabbath 

 were enforced by tithing-men who walked among the 

 people during Meeting to see that they behaved them- 

 selves in a seemly manner. If any one was caught asleep 

 or inattentive, and a Christian whack over the head with 

 a hymn-book did not waken him to a fitting sense of his 

 responsibilities, a committee of Selectmen ''waited" upon 

 him the next day with results entirely satisfactory. 



Such visits, however, were uncommon. The pioneers 

 of Vermont were a law-abiding people, honest, thrifty, 

 religious and possessing all the virtues that go to make 

 up a strong, fine race. 



That same year, 1808, Goss found himself in Burling- 



* "I have always admired the Morgans. I believe that no family 

 of horses has ever been produced which possesses in a high 

 degree so many valuable qualities which go to make up an ideal 

 gentleman's roadster, a family, or all-purpose horse, as the family 

 founded by Justin Morgan." — 6^. JV. Parliii, Editor, American 

 Horse Breeder. 



