The Horse, as Comrade and Friend 



patience and play this game to the end, when, if 

 he is hungry, he will the quicker snatch his first 

 wisp of hay and make off with it. Wild horse 

 as he is, you have estabhshed confidential 

 relations with him, for he has found out that, 

 under certain circumstances, you are not much 

 to be feared. Keep dead quiet and he will 

 soon be back for another wisp, which he will 

 again carry off ; and so on, with less nervous- 

 ness and more confidence every time, until, 

 still keeping a watchful eye on you all the 

 time, he concludes that it is not necessary to 

 carry it off and starts munching in earnest. 

 Just sit there and talk to him. After a while 

 move your hands and arms, just a Kttle, and 

 very slowly. He will have his eye on them ; 

 but, at the very first quick movement, he will 

 be off in panic, and all the snorting business 

 will have to be gone through again ; with the 

 added difficulty that a great suspicion has 

 arisen in his mind that you are not altogether 

 what he took you to be. On the other hand, 

 if you play your part with great adroitness 

 and tact, disarming his every apprehension, 

 you may be rewarded with an actual nibble 

 at a wisp in your hand, extended so slowly 

 that he almost thinks it grew like that. The 

 horse is a beast of splendid courage, and 

 remember that, in this first great interview, 

 this wild thing, in any advance he makes to 

 familiarity, is doing violence to all his hereditary 



27 



