^6 THE WONDER-BOOK OF HORSES 



solution of potash, a bar of soft iron bent into 

 the shape of a horseshoe, and possibly some other 

 things now well known to electricians. At any 

 rate, he arranged them very carefully, and having 

 laid a slab of marble over the cavity, went back 

 to his tower to await what might happen. 



In the morning the storm had cleared away, 

 the sky was cloudless, and the wizard, as he 

 stepped from his door, could hear the peasants 

 singing in the harvest-fields far over the hills. 

 When he called to mind the experiment of the 

 night before, he smiled at his ludicrous folly, as it 

 now seemed to him. And yet, curious to know 

 what the storm might have done with his magic 

 mixture, he went out and lifted the marble slab. 

 Had a flash of lightning really issued from the 

 cavity, he could not have been more astounded. 

 For, from the urn wherein he had placed, as I sup- 

 pose, the zinc and the copper, and the potash solu- 

 tion, there sprang a white horse with great 

 wings, from which the sunlight reflected all the 

 colors of the rainbow. 



Any other man would have been much more 

 astounded than Atlantes. But you must know 

 that he was acquainted with all the lore of the 

 ancients^ and he recognized the horse at once as 



