Black Beauty

by Anna Sewell

  "Now, then, Harry, my boy, open the gates, and mother will bring us thelantern."

  The next minute they were all standing round me in a small stable-yard.

  "Is he gentle, father?"

  "Yes, Dolly, as gentle as your own kitten; come and pat him."

  At once the little hand was patting about all over my shoulder withoutfear. How good it felt!

  "Let me get him a bran mash while you rub him down," said the mother.

  "Do, Polly, it's just what he wants; and I know you've got a beautifulmash ready for me."

  "Sausage dumpling and apple turnover!" shouted the boy, which set themall laughing. I was led into a comfortable, clean-smelling stall, withplenty of dry straw, and after a capital supper I lay down, thinking Iwas going to be happy.

  33 A London Cab Horse

  Jeremiah Barker was my new master's name, but as every one called himJerry, I shall do the same. Polly, his wife, was just as good a match asa man could have. She was a plump, trim, tidy little woman, with smooth,dark hair, dark eyes, and a merry little mouth. The boy was twelve yearsold, a tall, frank, good-tempered lad; and little Dorothy (Dolly theycalled her) was her mother over again, at eight years old. They were allwonderfully fond of each other; I never knew such a happy, merry familybefore or since. Jerry had a cab of his own, and two horses, which hedrove and attended to himself. His other horse was a tall, white, ratherlarge-boned animal called "Captain". He was old now, but when he wasyoung he must have been splendid; he had still a proud way ofholding his head and arching his neck; in fact, he was a high-bred,fine-mannered, noble old horse, every inch of him. He told me that inhis early youth he went to the Crimean War; he belonged to an officerin the cavalry, and used to lead the regiment. I will tell more of thathereafter.

  The next morning, when I was well-groomed, Polly and Dolly came into theyard to see me and make friends. Harry had been helping his father sincethe early morning, and had stated his opinion that I should turn out a"regular brick". Polly brought me a slice of apple, and Dolly a pieceof bread, and made as much of me as if I had been the "Black Beauty" ofolden time. It was a great treat to be petted again and talked to in agentle voice, and I let them see as well as I could that I wished to befriendly. Polly thought I was very handsome, and a great deal too goodfor a cab, if it was not for the broken knees.

  "Of course there's no one to tell us whose fault that was," said Jerry,"and as long as I don't know I shall give him the benefit of the doubt;for a firmer, neater stepper I never rode. We'll call him 'Jack', afterthe old one--shall we, Polly?"

  "Do," she said, "for I like to keep a good name going."

  Captain went out in the cab all the morning. Harry came in after schoolto feed me and give me water. In the afternoon I was put into thecab. Jerry took as much pains to see if the collar and bridle fittedcomfortably as if he had been John Manly over again. When the crupperwas let out a hole or two it all fitted well. There was no check-rein,no curb, nothing but a plain ring snaffle. What a blessing that was!

  After driving through the side street we came to the large cab standwhere Jerry had said "Good-night". On one side of this wide street werehigh houses with wonderful shop fronts, and on the other was an oldchurch and churchyard, surrounded by iron palisades. Alongside theseiron rails a number of cabs were drawn up, waiting for passengers; bitsof hay were lying about on the ground; some of the men were standingtogether talking; some were sitting on their boxes reading thenewspaper; and one or two were feeding their horses with bits of hay,and giving them a drink of water. We pulled up in the rank at the backof the last cab. Two or three men came round and began to look at me andpass their remarks.

  "Very good for a funeral," said one.

  "Too smart-looking," said another, shaking his head in a very wise way;"you'll find out something wrong one of these fine mornings, or my nameisn't Jones."

  "Well," said Jerry pleasantly, "I suppose I need not find it out till itfinds me out, eh? And if so, I'll keep up my spirits a little longer."

  Then there came up a broad-faced man, dressed in a great gray coatwith great gray cape and great white buttons, a gray hat, and a bluecomforter loosely tied round his neck; his hair was gray, too; buthe was a jolly-looking fellow, and the other men made way for him.He looked me all over, as if he had been going to buy me; and thenstraightening himself up with a grunt, he said, "He's the right sort foryou, Jerry; I don't care what you gave for him, he'll be worth it." Thusmy character was established on the stand.

  This man's name was Grant, but he was called "Gray Grant", or "GovernorGrant". He had been the longest on that stand of any of the men, andhe took it upon himself to settle matters and stop disputes. He wasgenerally a good-humored, sensible man; but if his temper was a littleout, as it was sometimes when he had drunk too much, nobody liked tocome too near his fist, for he could deal a very heavy blow.

  The first week of my life as a cab horse was very trying. I had neverbeen used to London, and the noise, the hurry, the crowds of horses,carts, and carriages that I had to make my way through made me feelanxious and harassed; but I soon found that I could perfectly trust mydriver, and then I made myself easy and got used to it.

  Jerry was as good a driver as I had ever known, and what was better, hetook as much thought for his horses as he did for himself. He soon foundout that I was willing to work and do my best, and he never laid thewhip on me unless it was gently drawing the end of it over my back whenI was to go on; but generally I knew this quite well by the way in whichhe took up the reins, and I believe his whip was more frequently stuckup by his side than in his hand.

  In a short time I and my master understood each other as well as horseand man can do. In the stable, too, he did all that he could for ourcomfort. The stalls were the old-fashioned style, too much on the slope;but he had two movable bars fixed across the back of our stalls, so thatat night, and when we were resting, he just took off our halters andput up the bars, and thus we could turn about and stand whichever way wepleased, which is a great comfort.

  Jerry kept us very clean, and gave us as much change of food as hecould, and always plenty of it; and not only that, but he always gave usplenty of clean fresh water, which he allowed to stand by us both nightand day, except of course when we came in warm. Some people say that ahorse ought not to drink all he likes; but I know if we are allowed todrink when we want it we drink only a little at a time, and it does usa great deal more good than swallowing down half a bucketful at a time,because we have been left without till we are thirsty and miserable.Some grooms will go home to their beer and leave us for hours with ourdry hay and oats and nothing to moisten them; then of course we gulpdown too much at once, which helps to spoil our breathing and sometimeschills our stomachs. But the best thing we had here was our Sundays forrest; we worked so hard in the week that I do not think we could havekept up to it but for that day; besides, we had then time to enjoy eachother's company. It was on these days that I learned my companion'shistory.

  34 An Old War Horse

  Captain had been broken in and trained for an army horse; his firstowner was an officer of cavalry going out to the Crimean war. He said hequite enjoyed the training with all the other horses, trotting together,turning together, to the right hand or the left, halting at the word ofcommand, or dashing forward at full speed at the sound of the trumpetor signal of the officer. He was, when young, a dark, dappled iron-gray,and considered very handsome. His master, a young, high-spiritedgentleman, was very fond of him, and treated him from the first with thegreatest care and kindness. He told me he thought the life of an armyhorse was very pleasant; but when it came to being sent abroad over thesea in a great ship, he almost changed his mind.

  "That part of it," said he, "was dreadful! Of course we could not walkoff the land into the ship; so they were obliged to put strong strapsunder our bodies, and then we were lifted off our legs in spite of ourstruggles, and were swung through the air over the water, to the deck ofthe great vessel. There we were placed in small
close stalls, and neverfor a long time saw the sky, or were able to stretch our legs. The shipsometimes rolled about in high winds, and we were knocked about, andfelt bad enough.

  "However, at last it came to an end, and we were hauled up, and swungover again to the land; we were very glad, and snorted and neighed forjoy, when we once more felt firm ground under our feet.

  "We soon found that the country we had come to was very different fromour own and that we had many hardships to endure besides the fighting;but many of the men were so fond of their horses that they dideverything they could to make them comfortable in spite of snow, wet,and all things out of order."

  "But what about the fighting?" said I, "was not that worse than anythingelse?"

  "Well," said he, "I hardly know; we always liked to hear the trumpetsound, and to be called out, and were impatient to start off, thoughsometimes we had to stand for hours, waiting for the word of command;and when the word was given we used to spring forward as gayly andeagerly as if there were no cannon balls, bayonets, or bullets. Ibelieve so long as we felt our rider firm in the saddle, and his handsteady on the bridle, not one of us gave way to fear, not even when theterrible bomb-shells whirled through the air and burst into a thousandpieces.

  "I, with my noble master, went into many actions together without awound; and though I saw horses shot down with bullets, pierced throughwith lances, and gashed with fearful saber-cuts; though we left themdead on the field, or dying in the agony of their wounds, I don't thinkI feared for myself. My master's cheery voice, as he encouraged hismen, made me feel as if he and I could not be killed. I had such perfecttrust in him that while he was guiding me I was ready to charge upto the very cannon's mouth. I saw many brave men cut down, many fallmortally wounded from their saddles. I had heard the cries and groansof the dying, I had cantered over ground slippery with blood, andfrequently had to turn aside to avoid trampling on wounded man or horse,but, until one dreadful day, I had never felt terror; that day I shallnever forget."

  Here old Captain paused for awhile and drew a long breath; I waited, andhe went on.

  "It was one autumn morning, and as usual, an hour before daybreak ourcavalry had turned out, ready caparisoned for the day's work, whetherit might be fighting or waiting. The men stood by their horses waiting,ready for orders. As the light increased there seemed to be someexcitement among the officers; and before the day was well begun weheard the firing of the enemy's guns.

  "Then one of the officers rode up and gave the word for the men tomount, and in a second every man was in his saddle, and every horsestood expecting the touch of the rein, or the pressure of his rider'sheels, all animated, all eager; but still we had been trained so wellthat, except by the champing of our bits, and the restive tossing of ourheads from time to time, it could not be said that we stirred.

  "My dear master and I were at the head of the line, and as all satmotionless and watchful, he took a little stray lock of my mane whichhad turned over on the wrong side, laid it over on the right, andsmoothed it down with his hand; then patting my neck, he said, 'We shallhave a day of it to-day, Bayard, my beauty; but we'll do our duty as wehave done.' He stroked my neck that morning more, I think, than he hadever done before; quietly on and on, as if he were thinking of somethingelse. I loved to feel his hand on my neck, and arched my crest proudlyand happily; but I stood very still, for I knew all his moods, and whenhe liked me to be quiet, and when gay.

  "I cannot tell all that happened on that day, but I will tell of thelast charge that we made together; it was across a valley right in frontof the enemy's cannon. By this time we were well used to the roar ofheavy guns, the rattle of musket fire, and the flying of shot near us;but never had I been under such a fire as we rode through on that day.From the right, from the left, and from the front, shot and shell pouredin upon us. Many a brave man went down, many a horse fell, flinging hisrider to the earth; many a horse without a rider ran wildly out of theranks; then terrified at being alone, with no hand to guide him, camepressing in among his old companions, to gallop with them to the charge.

  "Fearful as it was, no one stopped, no one turned back. Every moment theranks were thinned, but as our comrades fell, we closed in to keepthem together; and instead of being shaken or staggered in our pace ourgallop became faster and faster as we neared the cannon.

  "My master, my dear master was cheering on his comrades with his rightarm raised on high, when one of the balls whizzing close to my headstruck him. I felt him stagger with the shock, though he uttered no cry;I tried to check my speed, but the sword dropped from his right hand,the rein fell loose from the left, and sinking backward from the saddlehe fell to the earth; the other riders swept past us, and by the forceof their charge I was driven from the spot.

  "I wanted to keep my place by his side and not leave him under thatrush of horses' feet, but it was in vain; and now without a master or afriend I was alone on that great slaughter ground; then fear took holdon me, and I trembled as I had never trembled before; and I too, as Ihad seen other horses do, tried to join in the ranks and gallop withthem; but I was beaten off by the swords of the soldiers. Just then asoldier whose horse had been killed under him caught at my bridle andmounted me, and with this new master I was again going forward; but ourgallant company was cruelly overpowered, and those who remained aliveafter the fierce fight for the guns came galloping back over the sameground. Some of the horses had been so badly wounded that they couldscarcely move from the loss of blood; other noble creatures were tryingon three legs to drag themselves along, and others were struggling torise on their fore feet, when their hind legs had been shattered byshot. After the battle the wounded men were brought in and the dead wereburied."

  "And what about the wounded horses?" I said; "were they left to die?"

  "No, the army farriers went over the field with their pistols and shotall that were ruined; some that had only slight wounds were brought backand attended to, but the greater part of the noble, willing creaturesthat went out that morning never came back! In our stables there wasonly about one in four that returned.

  "I never saw my dear master again. I believe he fell dead from thesaddle. I never loved any other master so well. I went into many otherengagements, but was only once wounded, and then not seriously; and whenthe war was over I came back again to England, as sound and strong aswhen I went out."

  I said, "I have heard people talk about war as if it was a very finething."

  "Ah!" said he, "I should think they never saw it. No doubt it is veryfine when there is no enemy, when it is just exercise and parade andsham fight. Yes, it is very fine then; but when thousands of good bravemen and horses are killed or crippled for life, it has a very differentlook."

  "Do you know what they fought about?" said I.

  "No," he said, "that is more than a horse can understand, but the enemymust have been awfully wicked people, if it was right to go all that wayover the sea on purpose to kill them."

  35 Jerry Barker

  I never knew a better man than my new master. He was kind and good, andas strong for the right as John Manly; and so good-tempered and merrythat very few people could pick a quarrel with him. He was very fond ofmaking little songs, and singing them to himself. One he was very fondof was this:

  "Come, father and mother, And sister and brother, Come, all of you, turn to And help one another."

  And so they did; Harry was as clever at stable-work as a much older boy,and always wanted to do what he could. Then Polly and Dolly used to comein the morning to help with the cab--to brush and beat the cushions,and rub the glass, while Jerry was giving us a cleaning in the yard, andHarry was rubbing the harness. There used to be a great deal of laughingand fun between them, and it put Captain and me in much better spiritsthan if we had heard scolding and hard words. They were always early inthe morning, for Jerry would say:

  "If you in the morning Throw minutes away, You can't pick them up In the course of a day. You may hurry and scurr
y, And flurry and worry, You've lost them forever, Forever and aye."

  He could not bear any careless loitering and waste of time; and nothingwas so near making him angry as to find people, who were always late,wanting a cab horse to be driven hard, to make up for their idleness.

  One day two wild-looking young men came out of a tavern close by thestand, and called Jerry.

  "Here, cabby! look sharp, we are rather late; put on the steam, willyou, and take us to the Victoria in time for the one o'clock train? Youshall have a shilling extra."

  "I will take you at the regular pace, gentlemen; shillings don't pay forputting on the steam like that."

  Larry's cab was standing next to ours; he flung open the door, and said,"I'm your man, gentlemen! take my cab, my horse will get you there allright;" and as he shut them in, with a wink toward Jerry, said, "It'sagainst his conscience to go beyond a jog-trot." Then slashing his jadedhorse, he set off as hard as he could. Jerry patted me on the neck: "No,Jack, a shilling would not pay for that sort of thing, would it, oldboy?"

  Although Jerry was determinedly set against hard driving, to pleasecareless people, he always went a good fair pace, and was not againstputting on the steam, as he said, if only he knew why.

  I well remember one morning, as we were on the stand waiting for afare, that a young man, carrying a heavy portmanteau, trod on a piece oforange peel which lay on the pavement, and fell down with great force.

  Jerry was the first to run and lift him up. He seemed much stunned, andas they led him into a shop he walked as if he were in great pain. Jerryof course came back to the stand, but in about ten minutes one of theshopmen called him, so we drew up to the pavement.