XXXIX. — Horse Contrariness 



IT is bad enough to have wells go dry, but to have 

 a horse complicate matters by refusing to drink 

 good, pure water when it is offered to her and 

 threaten to die of thirst unless given access to 

 one particular pond, is an added exasperation. One 

 of the horses used to be quite well satisfied with the 

 somewhat inferior water in a tank at the barn, but 

 when it went dry she became as nifty and pernickety 

 as a connoisseur of rare wines. Although she goes 

 to the village almost every day she declines abso- 

 lutely to drink village water — even pure, cold rock 

 water drawn from an artesian well. In the same way 

 she sniffs superior at the water from the house well 

 — the water that we use every day for drinking and 

 cooking. It is not good enough for her. But there 

 is a somewhat disreputable pond at the other side 

 of the wood lot and as far from the stable as the 

 farm will allow, and from this pond she is willing 

 to drink until she almost bursts. When she gets 

 busy with it you would think she was half camel and 



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