SONS OF JUSTIN MORGAN 133 



high, and weighed nine hundred and twenty-five pounds. His off 

 hind leg was white from the foot half way to the hock, and he had a 

 small white stripe in the face ; his head was lean and well shaped, 

 ears small and fine, eyes inclined to be small, but full, prominent and 

 lively ; his legs had some long hairs upon the back side, but were 

 broad, flat and sinewy. He had a capital chest, with the breast- 

 bone very prominent ; the shoulders were large and well placed, the 

 neck excellent, the mane and tail full, but not remarkably heavy. 

 His hips were long and deep, the loins broad and muscular, but he 

 was a little hollow or ' sway-backed ' ; still, no suspicion of a weak 

 back could attach to him, or he would have broken down under the 

 rough treatment he recived in early life". 



Mr. Lyman Clark, Marshfield, Vermont, born in 1807, said to 

 us : "I saw old Sherman and recollect just how he looked ; a low- 

 ish, handsome horse, with strong limbs and good neck, well put on, 

 a good, solid-made horse; seems as though he was dark chestnut". 



Mr. George Sherman, from whom Mr. Linsley received much of 

 his information, was married in 1811, when Sherman Morgan was, as 

 he thinks, two or three years old ; and his father let him take the colt 

 to use that summer, and he did use him a good deal. "When four 

 years old", continues Mr. Linsley, " Mr. Sherman put him to hard 

 work, and, though for about two months in the spring of each year 

 he worked but little, yet the remainder of the year his labor was very 

 severe. Mr. Sherman was a hard-working man, and animals under 

 his charge had few opportunities to rest. Most of the year the horse 

 was kept constantly at work on the farm, much of which he helped 

 'to clear up'. In the winter Mr. Sherman usually ran a team steadily 

 from Lyndon, Vermont, to Portland, Maine. For several years this 

 team consisted of this horse and a half-brother, sired by Justin Mor- 

 gan, a year older and a little larger than Sherman. Mr. Sherman 

 was not a man to be outdone at drawing or driving, and he was 

 always ready to match his team against any he met, either to draw 

 or run, for a trifling wager. His 'little team' became famous at 

 every inn from Lyndon to Portland, and after a time the teamsters 

 that knew them were afraid to match horses of any size against them. 

 In the spring, when the sleighing became poor, the men who had 

 been companions through the winter in the severe labor of teaming 

 across the country, would often congregate at the village taverns, to 

 spin yarns of their simple but rough adventures, engage in wrestling, 

 running foot and horse races, drawing matches, and many games in- 

 vented to test the speed or strength of either men or horses. 



