244 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE, 
touching it. When the engine stopped, it appeared 
that the leader’s bit was hanging loose, and that he 
had served as his own driver. 
This same animal, a big bay horse, is also cred- 
ited with some clever work in his own interest. Im- 
mediately in the rear of his stall was a slide where 
the oats came down, as he had full opportunity to 
observe at feeding time. But how could he get them ? 
He was confined in his stall, not of course by a hal- 
ter, but by a rope stretched behind him, and fastened 
by an ordinary open hook. First, he discovered that, 
with some difficulty, he could turn in the stall far 
enough to get hold of the rope with his teeth, and 
after many attempts he succeeded in unhooking it. 
It was then an easy task to step across to the slide, 
pull it open with his teeth, and thus set running the 
reservoir of grain above. Two or three times he was 
found, after achieving this feat, standing in a deluge 
of oats, and industriously stowing them away in a 
compartment furnished by nature. But the firemen 
checkmated him by putting on the rope a snap hook, 
closed by a spring; and there it may be seen, at once 
proving the occurrence and preventing its repetition. 
There is another sagacious leader, called John, one 
of a span of large, handsome, dark, mottled grays, used 
on a ladder trtick. These are among the very finest 
horses in the Boston department: they are strong and 
symmetrical, with small, clean-cut heads, large eyes, 
and courageous but gentle expression. John, espe- 
cially, is as kind as a dog, a favorite with the women 
and children of the neghborhood, a great pet of the 
firemen, and quiet as a mouse in the stable, but on the 
street full of life and animation, and playful enough 
