Coaly-Bay, the Outlaw Horse 
Coaly-bay loved to race like the wind, he gloried 
in his speed, his tireless legs, and when careering 
with the herd of colts they met a fence or ditch, it 
was as natural to Coaly-bay to overleap it, as it 
was for the others to sheer off. 
So he grew up strong of limb, restless of spirit, 
and rebellious at any thought of restraint. Even 
the kindly curb of the hay-yard or the stable was 
unwelcome, and he soon showed that he would 
rather stand out all night in a driving storm than 
be locked in a comfortable stall where he had no 
vestige of the liberty he loved so well. 
He became very clever at dodging the horse 
wrangler whose job it was to bring the horseherd 
to the corral. The very sight of that man set 
Coaly-bay agoing. He became what is known as 
a “Quit-the-bunch”—that is a horse of such inde- 
pendent mind that he will go his own way the mo- 
ment he does not like the way of the herd. 
So each month the colt became more set on 
living free, and more cunning in the means he 
took to win his way. Far down in his soul, too, 
there must have been a streak of cruelty, for he 
stuck at nothing and spared no one that seemed to 
stand between him and his one desire. 
When he was three years of age, just in the per- 
fection of his young strength and beauty, his real 
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