THE HACKNEY. 435 



He was benighted on a common where it was so dark that he could 

 scarcely see his horse's head. He threw the reins on its neck, and in 

 half an hour was safe at his friend's gate. Another gentleman, riding 

 through a wood in a dark night, struck his head against the branch of a 

 tree and fell, stunned, to the ground. The horse returned to the house 

 they had lately left, and paused at the door till some one arose and 

 opened it. He then turned about and led the man to the place where 

 his master was lying senseless. 



In 1809, the inhabitants of the Tyrol captured fifteen horses from the 

 Bavarian troops, on which they mounted their own men. An encounter 

 afterward took place between the hostile forces ; but at the commence- 

 ment of it the Bavarian chargers, which had changed their masters, 

 recognized their former trumpet-call and the uniform of their old 

 regiment, and in an instant darted off at full gallop, in spite of all the 

 efforts of their riders, whom they bore in triumph into the midst of the 

 Bavarian ranks, where the Tyrolese were at once made prisoners. 



An orchard had been repeatedly stripped of its best and ripest fruit, 

 and the marauders had laid their plans so cunningly that the strictest 

 vigilance could not detect them. At last the depredators were dis- 

 covered to be a mare and her colt which were turned out to graze 

 among the trees. The mare was seen to go up to one of the apple-trees 

 and to throw herself against the trunk so violently that a shower of ripe 

 apples came tumbling down. She and her offspring then ate the fallen 

 apples, and the same process was repeated at another tree. Another 

 mare had discovered the secret of the water-butt, and whenever she 

 was thirsty, was accustomed to go to the butt, turn the tap with her 

 teeth, drink until her thirst was satisfied, and then to close the tap again. 

 Two animals are said to have performed this feat, but one of them was 

 not clever enough to turn the tap back again, and used to let all the 

 water run to waste. 



A careless groom was ordered to prepare a mash for one of the 

 horses placed under his care, and after making a thin, unsatisfactory 

 mixture, he hastily threw a quantity of chaff on the surface, and gave it 

 to the horse. The animal tried to push away the chaff and get his nose 

 into the mash, but was unable to do so, and when he tried to draw the 

 liquid into his mouth, the chaff flew into his throat and nearly choked 

 him. Being baffled, he paused awhile, and then pulled a lock of hay 

 from the rack. Pushing the hay through the chaff, he contrived to suck 



