74 WHIP AND SPUR. 



was bequeathed to me, she was always most 

 useful, but never so gay and frisky as while she 

 carried her own devoted groom. No day was too 

 long for her and no road too heavy ; her brisk 

 trot knew no failing, but she refused ever again 

 to form the personal attachment that had sealed 

 her and Wettstein to each other. 



The two of them together, like the fabled Cen- 

 taur, made the complete creature. He with the 

 hardened frame and bright nature of his Alpine 

 race, and she with her veins full of the mustang 

 blood of the Rocky Mountains, were fitted to each 

 other as almost never were horse and rider before. 

 Their performances were astonishing. In addi- 

 tion to a constant attendance on his commander 

 (who, riding without baggage, and of no heavier 

 person than Wettstein himself, sometimes fagged 

 out three good horses between one morning 

 and the next), the Trompaytr yet volunteered 

 for all sorts of extra service, — carried messages 

 over miles of bad road to the general's camp, 

 gave riding-lessons and music-lessons to the com- 

 pany buglers, and then — fear of the guard-house 



