Minnie's Pet Horse Page 5

  CHAPTER V.

  THE TRUMPETER'S HORSE.

  "For Minnie's sake, I must tell some anecdotes about Shetland ponies,"cried the captain, laughing, as he patted his niece under the chin. "Thefirst one shows what a power of memory they have.

  "A pony reared upon Drumchany, belonging to General Stewart, was oncetravelling from Edinburgh to Perthshire, in company with several othergentlemen. They were advancing to the neighborhood of Drumchany when itsuddenly grew dark, and they could not find the place to take the ford.

  "At last, they concluded to trust to the pony's memory, and, giving himthe reins, he trotted on cheerily, till, suddenly pausing and turning tothe right, he trotted down a furrow through a potato field, that leddirectly to the ford in question, which he crossed in the same decidedmanner, and piloted them safely all the rest of the way to theirdestination.

  "During their stay, he got out of the stable one night, and was foundnext day pasturing among the mosses where he had been bred."

  "I heard of a case very similar," rejoined Mr. Gordon, one of thegentlemen who composed the party.

  "A gentleman rode a young horse, which he had brought up, thirty milesfrom home, and to a part of the country where he had never been before.The road was a cross one, and extremely difficult to find; however, bydint of perseverance and inquiry, he at last reached his destination.

  "Two years afterward, he had occasion to go the same way, and wasbenighted four or five miles from the end of his journey. The night wasso dark that he could scarcely see the horse's head. He had a drearymoor and common to pass, and had lost all traces of the proper directionhe wished to take. The rain began to fall heavily. He now despaired ofreaching the place.

  "'Here am I,' said he to himself, 'far from any house, and in the midstof a dreary waste, where I know not which way to direct the course of mysteed. I have heard much of the memory of the horse, and that is now myonly hope.'

  "He threw the reins on the horse's neck, and encouraging him to proceed,found himself safe at the gate of his friend in less than an hour. Whatmade it more remarkable was the fact, that the animal could notpossibly have been over the road, except on the occasion two yearsbefore, as no person but his master ever rode him."

  "You said you had another story of a Shetland pony, uncle Frank,"whispered Minnie.

  "So I have, dear. It was about a little girl, the daughter of agentleman in Warwickshire. She was one day playing on the banks of acanal which runs through her father's grounds, when she had themisfortune to fall in, and would in all probability have been drowned,had not a small pony, which had long been kept in the family, plungedinto the stream, and brought the child safely ashore without theslightest injury."

  "I think my pony would do that," exclaimed Minnie; "he loves me sowell."

  "That is to me one of their most interesting traits," added thecaptain. "They are capable of becoming so strongly attached to man, thatthey give up their own wishes to those of their master. Indeed, theirinterests become so identified with his, that they come to have no willof their own. I have myself seen an old Shetland pony, which would placeits fore foot in the hand of its young master like a dog, thrust itshead under his arm to be caressed, and join with him and a littleterrier in all their noisy rompings on the lawn. The same animal dailybore its young master to school; and, though its heels and teeth wereready for every other urchin, yet so attached was it to this boy, thatit would wait hours for him in his sports by the way, and even walkalone from the stable in town to the school room, which was fully halfa mile distant, and wait, saddled and bridled, for the afternoon'sdismissal. Indeed, the young scapegrace did not deserve one tenth ofthis attention; for I have seen old 'Donald' toiling home with him atthe gallop, to make up for time squandered at play."

  Minnie's father then repeated to the gentleman many instances of herpony's attachment to her, and of his playfulness.

  "I am of opinion," said Mr. Gordon, "that there are instances ofattachment of a horse to his master equal to that shown by man to man.

  "During the Peninsular war; the trumpeter of a French cavalry corps hada fine charger assigned to him, of which he became passionately fond,and which, by gentleness of disposition and uniform docility, showed theaffection to be mutual.

  "The sound of the trumpeter's voice, the sight of his uniform, or theclang of his trumpet, was sufficient to throw this animal into a stateof excitement, and he appeared to be pleased and happy only when underthe saddle of his rider. Indeed, he was unruly and useless to every bodyelse; for once, on being removed to another part of the forces, andconsigned to a young officer, he resolutely refused to obey thecommands of his rider. The first chance he had, he bolted straight tothe trumpeter's station, and there took his stand, jostling alongsidehis former master.

  "They were obliged to restore him to his old place, when he carried thetrumpeter through many campaigns, and through many hair-breadth escapes.

  "At last, the corps to which he belonged was defeated, and in theconfusion of retreat, the trumpeter was mortally wounded. Dropping fromhis horse, his body was found, many days after the engagement, stretchedon the sward, with his faithful charger standing over it.

  "During the long interval, it seems he had never quitted the trumpeter'sside, but had stood sentinel over his corpse, scaring away the birds ofprey, heedless of his own privations.

  "When found, he was in a sadly reduced condition, partly from loss ofblood through wounds, but chiefly from want of food, of which, in theexcess of his grief, he could not be prevailed on to partake."

  "A similar case of strong attachment happened under my immediatenotice," remarked Mr. Lee, after a moment's silence. "General L. had ahorse with him in camp of which he was exceedingly fond, and to thetraining of which he had given particular attention. Every morning, atexactly eight o'clock, this horse came alone to the door of his tent,saddled for use, and stood there ready for his rider to mount. When thegeneral appeared in his uniform, the affectionate animal welcomed himwith a loud neigh of delight.

  "At last, the noble officer received his death wound, and lay for somedays in his tent. It was affecting to see the horse walking up to thedoor as usual, and, when its master did not appear, to witness its lookof anxious solicitude.

  "When General L. died, he left his noble charger to the particular careof his wife, who was with him in his last moments. His remains wereremoved to ----, the horse being conveyed by the same train of cars,and manifesting intense grief. On the day of the funeral, the body wascarried to the church in which his family worshipped, the most touchingtribute to his memory being this faithful animal, caparisoned inmourning, taking his station directly behind the corpse.

  "It was not necessary for any one to lead him, for he somehow seemed tounderstand that his deceased master was in the coffin; and nothingwould induce him to leave it. For more than an hour, while the religiousservices lasted, he stood in front of the church, watching the doorthrough which he had seen the corpse carried, waiting for it to comeout, and then, without any command, wheeled into line, and followeddirectly behind it to the grave. What was very remarkable, as soon asthe body was buried, he left the cemetery, following the coachcontaining the wife of his master."

  "Your story," said the captain, "reminds me of a singular one I heard atsea.

  "A farmer who lived in the neighborhood of Bedford, England, andregularly attended the markets there, was returning home one evening,and being somewhat tipsy, rolled off his saddle into the middle of theroad. His horse stood still; but after remaining patiently for sometime, and not observing any disposition in the rider to get up andproceed further, he took him by the collar and shook him. This hadlittle or no effect, for the farmer only gave a grumble ofdissatisfaction at having his repose disturbed. The animal was not to beput off with any such evasion, and so applied his mouth to one of hismaster's coat laps, and after several attempts, by dragging at it, toraise him upon his feet, the coat lap gave way.

  "Three persons, who witnessed this extraordinary p
roceeding, then wentup and assisted him in mounting his horse, putting the one coat lap intothe pocket of the other, when he trotted off, and safely reached home.This horse is deservedly a favorite with his master, and engages ingambols with him like a dog."

  "How old is your new horse, Frank?" inquired his brother George.

  "Nine years. Just in his prime; and, with good care, will last fortwenty years to come."

  Mr. Gordon laughed. "Twenty years!" he repeated, incredulously.

  "I think," answered the captain, "it a mistake to suppose a horse is notfit for service much after he is twelve or fourteen years old. If he isused as he ought to be, and has good care, he will last well twenty, oreven thirty years. The charger of Sir Ralph Abercrombie, which waswounded in the battle of Alexandria, afterwards died at Malta. On thestone erected there in commemoration of its services, the age ofthirty-six is inscribed.

  "And in 1790, there was alive near Haddington, in England, a Shetlandpony which had been in battle in 1745, whose age was forty-seven years."

  "No doubt there are such cases," answered the gentleman, "but they arerare in this country. I suppose we give our horses too much to do."

  "Yes, that is it; and too little care. No animal so richly repays theattention bestowed upon him as the horse."