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1"No doubt you would," said Merrylegs; "but then I am not quite such a fool (begging your pardon) as to anger our master
2or make James ashamed of me. Besides, those children are under my charge when they are riding; I tell you they are
3intrusted to me. Why, only the other day I heard our master say to Mrs. Blomefield, 'My dear madam, you need not be
4anxious about the children; my old Merrylegs will take as much care of them as you or I could; I assure you I would not
5sell that pony for any money, he is so perfectly good-tempered and trustworthy;' and do you think I am such an
6ungrateful brute as to forget all the kind treatment I have had here for five years, and all the trust they place in me,
7and turn vicious because a couple of ignorant boys used me badly? No, no! you never had a good place where they were
8kind to you, and so you don't know, and I'm sorry for you; but I can tell you good places make good horses. I wouldn't
9vex our people for anything; I love them, I do," said Merrylegs, and he gave a low "ho, ho, ho!" through his nose, as he
10used to do in the morning when he heard James' footstep at the door. "Besides," he went on, "if I took to kicking where
11should I be? Why, sold off in a jiffy, and no character, and I might find myself slaved about under a butcher's boy, or
12worked to death at some seaside place where no one cared for me, except to find out how fast I could go, or be flogged
13along in some cart with three or four great men in it going out for a Sunday spree, as I have often seen in the place I
14lived in before I came here; no," said he, shaking his head, "I hope I shall never come to that." 10 A Talk in the
15Orchard Ginger and I were not of the regular tall carriage horse breed, we had more of the racing blood in us. We stood
16about fifteen and a half hands high; we were therefore just as good for riding as we were for driving, and our master
17used to say that he disliked either horse or man that could do but one thing; and as he did not want to show off in
18London parks, he preferred a more active and useful kind of horse. As for us, our greatest pleasure was when we were
19saddled for a riding party; the master on Ginger, the mistress on me, and the young ladies on Sir Oliver and Merrylegs.
20It was so cheerful to be trotting and cantering all together that it always put us in high spirits. I had the best of
21it, for I always carried the mistress; her weight was little, her voice was sweet, and her hand was so light on the rein
22that I was guided almost without feeling it. Oh! if people knew what a comfort to horses a light hand is, and how it
23keeps a good mouth and a good temper, they surely would not chuck, and drag, and pull at the rein as they often do. Our
24mouths are so tender that where they have not been spoiled or hardened with bad or ignorant treatment, they feel the
25slightest movement of the driver's hand, and we know in an instant what is required of us. My mouth has never been
26spoiled, and I believe that was why the mistress preferred me to Ginger, although her paces were certainly quite as
27good. She used often to envy me, and said it was all the fault of breaking in, and the gag bit in London, that her mouth
28was not so perfect as mine; and then old Sir Oliver would say, "There, there! don't vex yourself; you have the greatest
29honor; a mare that can carry a tall man of our master's weight, with all your spring and sprightly action, does not need
30to hold her head down because she does not carry the lady; we horses must take things as they come, and always be
31contented and willing so long as we are kindly used." I had often wondered how it was that Sir Oliver had such a very
32short tail; it really was only six or seven inches long, with a tassel of hair hanging from it; and on one of our
33holidays in the orchard I ventured to ask him by what accident it was that he had lost his tail. "Accident!" he snorted
34with a fierce look, "it was no accident! it was a cruel, shameful, cold-blooded act! When I was young I was taken to a
35place where these cruel things were done; I was tied up, and made fast so that I could not stir, and then they came and
36cut off my long and beautiful tail, through the flesh and through the bone, and took it away. "How dreadful!" I
37exclaimed. "Dreadful, ah! it was dreadful; but it was not only the pain, though that was terrible and lasted a long
38time; it was not only the indignity of having my best ornament taken from me, though that was bad; but it was this, how
39could I ever brush the flies off my sides and my hind legs any more? You who have tails just whisk the flies off without
40thinking about it, and you can't tell what a torment it is to have them settle upon you and sting and sting, and have
41nothing in the world to lash them off with. I tell you it is a lifelong wrong, and a lifelong loss; but thank heaven,
42they don't do it now." "What did they do it for then?" said Ginger. "For fashion!" said the old horse with a stamp of
43his foot; "for fashion! if you know what that means; there was not a well-bred young horse in my time that had not his
44tail docked in that shameful way, just as if the good God that made us did not know what we wanted and what looked
45best." "I suppose it is fashion that makes them strap our heads up with those horrid bits that I was tortured with in
46London," said Ginger. "Of course it is," said he; "to my mind, fashion is one of the wickedest things in the world. Now
47look, for instance, at the way they serve dogs, cutting off their tails to make them look plucky, and shearing up their
48pretty little ears to a point to make them both look sharp, forsooth. I had a dear friend once, a brown terrier; 'Skye'
49they called her. She was so fond of me that she never would sleep out of my stall; she made her bed under the manger,
50and there she had a litter of five as pretty little puppies as need be; none were drowned, for they were a valuable
51kind, and how pleased she was with them! and when they got their eyes open and crawled about, it was a real pretty
52sight; but one day the man came and took them all away; I thought he might be afraid I should tread upon them. But it
53was not so; in the evening poor Skye brought them back again, one by one in her mouth; not the happy little things that
54they were, but bleeding and crying pitifully; they had all had a piece of their tails cut off, and the soft flap of
55their pretty little ears was cut quite off. How their mother licked them, and how troubled she was, poor thing! I never
56forgot it. They healed in time, and they forgot the pain, but the nice soft flap, that of course was intended to protect
57the delicate part of their ears from dust and injury, was gone forever. Why don't they cut their own children's ears
58into points to make them look sharp? Why don't they cut the end off their noses to make them look plucky? One would be
59just as sensible as the other. What right have they to torment and disfigure God's creatures?" Sir Oliver, though he was
60so gentle, was a fiery old fellow, and what he said was all so new to me, and so dreadful, that I found a bitter feeling
61toward men rise up in my mind that I never had before. Of course Ginger was very much excited; she flung up her head
62with flashing eyes and distended nostrils, declaring that men were both brutes and blockheads. "Who talks about
63blockheads?" said Merrylegs, who just came up from the old apple-tree, where he had been rubbing himself against the low
64branch. "Who talks about blockheads? I believe that is a bad word." "Bad words were made for bad things," said Ginger,
65and she told him what Sir Oliver had said.
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