282 THE horse's rescue. 



yoa the cause of nearly all this trouble and sliipwreck. 

 Part was my fault. That rosin business was my fault. 

 I listened to that old liar. "Thev Sav." I did not use 

 reason until it was too late. I think Beach's horses 

 would have made tliat trip if it had not been for rosin. 

 They were lugged to death. ^J^here was no let-up on 

 them. They had to draw up and down grade nearly 

 all the route, and no help for it. They were not fed 

 up for such a trip, and were old ; and yet we could 

 have favored them and would, and we did all we could. 

 Rosin would block the wheels, and blocked the game. 

 Part of this wreck was caused by a sneak thief, taking 

 my mare out of my stable in the night, lambing her 

 around all night, tearing off or twisting around her 

 shoe, and causing her to drive four nails into the bot- 

 tom of her foot. That was the biggest eye-opener I 

 ever had at that time. I had had some befoi'e, one 

 about nine months previous to this. That caused me 

 to stare, but as it is on another subject I will save that 

 for another book, which I intend to write. These eye- 

 openers caused me to begin to think more and use more 

 reason and all the good judgment and good sense I 

 could command about all thincrs. I am usincrmore of 

 these articles now than I ever used in all my life, and 

 vet I make some mistakes. These wrecks and mis- 

 takes have all been lessons to me. It has been so all 

 through life — wreck, repair, and sail What is the use 

 of getting scared ? 



Let us go on with this horse sail. You cannot ex- 

 pect to own and drive horses without having some 

 lame in some way and in many ways. The only thing 



