216 ADVENTUEES IN THE ^LDERNESS. 



window, the groom, who had divined where he 

 should find her, came into the yard. But she 

 would not allow him to come near her, much less 

 touch her. If he tried to approach she would lash 

 out at him with her heels most spitefully, and then, 

 laying back her ears and oj)ening her mouth sav- 

 agely, would make a short dash at him, and, as the 

 terrified African disaj^peared around the corner of 

 the hospital, she w^ould wheel, and, with a face 

 bright as a happy child's, come trotting to the win- 

 dow for me to pet her. I shouted to the groom to 

 go back to the stable, for I had no doubt but that 

 she would return to her stall when I closed the 

 window. Eejoiced at tlie permission, he departed. 

 After some thirty minutes, the last ten of which 

 she was standing with her slim, delicate head in 

 my lap, while I braided her foretop and combed 

 out her silken mane, I lifted her head, and, pat- 

 ting her softly on either cheek, told her that 

 she must 'go.' I gently pushed her head out 

 of the ^vindow and closed it, and then, holding 

 up my hand, with the palm turned toward her, 

 charged her, making the appropriate motion, to ' go 

 away right straight back to her stable.' For a mo- 

 ment she stood looking steadily at me with an in- 

 describable expression of hesitation and surprise in 

 her clear, liquid eyes, and then, turning lingeringly, 

 walked slowly out of the yard. 



" Twice a day, for nearly a month, while I lay in 



