THE-;-HOR'SE 



over his eyes he ran madly away, heading for 

 a hay wagon. Without an attempt at direc- 

 tion he would probably have hit the wagon 

 at an angle and would have broken my leg. 

 I knew I could not pull him clear of the 

 wagon, but by employing all my strength 

 directed him head on, and the collision 

 occurred in this position. The horse re- 

 bounded over backward. Two planks were 

 smashed to splinters on the floor of the 

 wagon, and a gash across the horse's chest 

 left upon him a mark that never diappeared. 



On my next ride, hoping the animal had 

 some sense knocked into him, I managed to 

 start out at a moderate gait. In a few mo- 

 ments, however, he started bucking, rapidly 

 increasing his pace so that the bucks finally 

 flattened out into the tearing stride of a run- 

 away horse. 



A single tree was directly in the path, and, 

 pull as I would, I saw that a collision could 

 not be averted. This supple tree, being 

 struck, was the cause of the animal's rebound- 

 ing several feet in the direction whence he 

 came and assuming a position upon his back 

 with legs extended upward. During this 

 occurrence I rolled off, but remounted the 

 animal before he had regained his wind. I 

 realized, however, that this was an incor- 

 rigible runaway. 



Having a friend, one Ramon Felis, bucka- 



72 



