Black Beauty by Anna Sewell (life changing books to read txt) 📕

“Oh! Harry, there never was anything so beautiful; Mrs. Fowler says we are all to go and live near her. There is a cottage now empty that will just suit us, with a garden and a henhouse, and apple-trees, and everything! and her coachman is going away in the spring, and then she will want father in his place; and there are good families round, where you can get a place in the garden or the stable, or as a pageboy; and there’s a good school for me; and mother is laughing and crying by turns, and father does look so happy!”

“That’s uncommon jolly,” said Harry, “and just the right thing, I should say; it will suit father and mother both; but I don’t intend to be a pageboy with tight clothes and rows of buttons. I’ll be a groom or a gardener.”

It was quickly settled that as soon as Jerry was well enough they should remove to the country, and that the cab and horses should be sold as soon as possible.

This was heavy news for me, for I was not young now, and could not look for any improvement in my condition. Since I left Birtwick I had never been so happy as with my dear master Jerry; but three years of cab work, even under the best conditions, will tell on one’s strength, and I felt that I was not the horse that I had been.

Grant said at once that he would take Hotspur, and there were men on the stand who would have bought me; but Jerry said I should not go to cab work again with just anybody, and the governor promised to find a place for me where I should be comfortable.

The day came for going away. Jerry had not been allowed to go out yet, and I never saw him after that New Year’s eve. Polly and the children came to bid me goodbye. “Poor old Jack! dear old Jack! I wish we could take you with us,” she said, and then laying her hand on my mane she put her face close to my neck and kissed me. Dolly was crying and kissed me too. Harry stroked me a great deal, but said nothing, only he seemed very sad, and so I was led away to my new place.

I was sold to a corn dealer and baker, whom Jerry knew, and with him he thought I should have good food and fair work. In the first he was quite right, and if my master had always been on the premises I do not think I should have been overloaded, but there was a foreman who was always hurrying and driving everyone, and frequently when I had quite a full load he would order something else to be taken on. My carter, whose name was Jakes, often said it was more than I ought to take, but the other always overruled him. “ ’Twas no use going twice when once would do, and he chose to get business forward.”

Jakes, like the other carters, always had the checkrein up, which prevented me from drawing easily, and by the time I had been there three or four months I found the work telling very much on my strength.

One day I was loaded more than usual, and part of the road was a steep uphill. I used all my strength, but I could not get on, and was obliged continually to stop. This did not please my driver, and he laid his whip on badly. “Get on, you lazy fellow,” he said, “or I’ll make you.”

Again I started the heavy load, and struggled on a few yards; again the whip came down, and again I struggled forward. The pain of that great cart whip was sharp, but my mind was hurt quite as much as my poor sides. To be punished and abused when I was doing my very best was so hard it took the heart out of me. A third time he was flogging me cruelly, when a lady stepped quickly up to him, and said in a sweet, earnest voice, “Oh! pray do not whip your good horse any more; I am sure he is doing all he can, and the road is very steep; I am sure he is doing his best.”

“If doing his best won’t get this load up he must do something more than his best; that’s all I know, ma’am,” said Jakes.

“But is it not a heavy load?” she said.

“Yes, yes, too heavy,” he said, “but that’s not my fault; the foreman came just as we were starting, and would have three hundredweight more put on to save him trouble, and I must get on with it as well as I can.”

He was raising the whip again, when the lady said, “Pray, stop; I think I can help you if you will let me.”

The man laughed.

“You see,” she said, “you do not give him a fair chance; he cannot use all his power with his head held back as it is with that checkrein; if you would take it off I am sure he would do better⁠—do try it,” she said persuasively, “I should be very glad if you would.”

“Well, well,” said Jakes, with a short laugh, “anything to please a lady, of course. How far would you wish it down, ma’am?”

“Quite down, give him his head altogether.”

The rein was taken off, and in a moment I put my head down to my very knees. What a comfort it was! Then I tossed it up and down several times to get the aching stiffness out of my neck.

“Poor fellow! that is what you wanted,” said she, patting and stroking me with her gentle hand, “and now if you will speak kindly to him and lead him on I believe he will be able to do better.”

Jakes took the rein. “Come on, Blackie.” I