Miss Laura petted him a great deal. She often took out
apples to the stable, and Fleetfoot would throw up his beautiful head
and look reproachfully over the partition at her, for she always stayed
longer with Scrub than with him, and Scrub always got the larger share
of whatever good thing was going.
Poor old Scrub! I think he loved Miss Laura. He was a stupid sort of a
horse, and always acted as if he was blind. He would run his nose up and
down the front of her dress, nip at the buttons, and be very happy if he
could get a bit of her watch-chain between his strong teeth. If he was
in the field he never seemed to know her till she was right under his
pale-colored eyes. Then he would be delighted to see her. He was not
blind though, for Mr. Wood said he was not. He said he had probably not
been an over-bright horse to start with, and had been made more dull by
cruel usage.
As for the Englishman, the master of these animals, a very strange thing
happened to him. He came to a terrible end, but for a long time no one
knew anything about it. Mr. Wood and Mr. Harry were so very angry with
him that they said they would leave no stone unturned to have him
punished, or at least to have it known what a villain he was.
Pages:
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296