THE SHIP OF THE PLAINS 



HE was the first real flesh-and-blood horse of 

 which we have any account. Some men say 

 that he was the first animal of the kind that ever 

 lived, but this is doubtful. Snowy white, with- 

 out spot or blemish, from the tips of his ears to 

 the tips of his amber hoofs, how he must have 

 astonished the simple-minded folk of Cecropia 

 when he leaped into their midst right out of the 

 earth at their feet! If you should ever go to 

 Athens and climb to the top of that wonderful 

 hill called the Acropolis, look around you. You 

 may see the very spot where it all happened. But 

 to the story. 



Did I say that the people who lived there at 

 that time were simple-minded? Rather childlike 

 they were in some ways, and not so worldly-wise 

 as they might have been had they lived several 

 thousand years later; but they were neither sim- 

 pletons nor altogether savages. They were the 

 foremost people in Greece. It was all owing to 



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