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VoL. VIL JAMES ELVERSON, § N.W, corner NINTH
Publisher,
Harry’s RIDE.
BY 8. F, AARON.
“Yes, he asks a good price for the
horse, and he will get it, too. Valuable?
Well, you had better believe it! There
isn’t a horse nowhere around here that'll
outsell him. No; be has no fault, unless
you call his trick of biting a fault; but
*
that won’t hurt his sale. Do we pasture
him? No, not this time of year. Now,
look here, Peters, you ask a lot of queer
questions! We keep that horse right here
in this stable, and there’s a lock on the
door. You don’t want to buy the animal,
I reckon. No; you haven’t got money
enough to buy a setting hen!”
These words, spoken in a loud, excited
tone, were overheard by young Uarry
Dawson as he approached his father’s
stable, and he thought it odd that Dick,
the stable hand, should be talking about
the very matter that lay heavily on his
own mind.
‘As he looked in the door, the man to
whom Dick had been speaking was com-
ing out, and Harry noticed his rough ap-
* pearance as he lingered to listen, when he
caught Harry’s first words.
“Dick, father says put my saddle on
Ben; I’m going to take my last ride on
him. Mr. Scott has wanted Ben this long
time, and I have to ride him over there
and tell Mr. Scott he can have him. Oh,
Dick, I can’t bear to see Ben sold! Can’t
we coax father to keep him?”
“Well, Harry, you see your father thinks
Ben’s getting too vicious. He bit at Miss
Sue to-day, and tore her dress, and on
Sunday he made a grab at <your father’s
shoulder. I hate to see Ben go, too, he’s
such a fine animal, and he never bites me,
you know.” a
“Don’t talk about it, Dick; it makes
me feel awful. I don’t believe he would
really hurt anybody ; it’s only for the fun
of scaring them.”
The two now passed: behind the car-
riage horses,:among them a pair of black
ponies, the pets of Tlarry and his sister
Sue, and stopped at a stall in which stuod
alarge roan, as sleek as satin, and as lithe
and graceful as a deer, with a small, fine-
ly formed head and arching neck, a pair
of restless ears, a long mane and tail—in
* short, a typical thoroughbred.
As Dick approached him with the bri-
die, Ben laid back his ears, and playfully
tried to push him away. .
Harry stood feasting his eyes on Ben’s
splendid points until he was bridled and
saddled, and then sorrowfully exclaimed :
“Oh, Dick, if father sells Ben, how.can
Tever forgive him for it?”
Dick could hold out no hopes of saving
the horse, for he knew that Mr. Dawson
had at last decided to part with the pride
of his stables, simply because he feared
that the animal, which had but one seri-
ous fault, might dangerously bite some
member of his family or household.
and SPRUCE Sts.
[Entered according to Act of Congress, in se year 1887, by Jawxs Exvensox, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C.)
PHILADELPHIA, JANUARY 8, 1887.
As Dick helped the boy to mount, he
said, cheerily :
“Come, Harry, when Ben starts off
with you, you’ll feel a heap better; and
then, if he throws you, you’ll want to sell
him yourself.”
Harry was almost ready to laugh at the
idea of Ben’s throwing him; and when
he rode around to the front gate, his
father came out with a note, saying:
“Now, my boy, it’s getting late, and
ou will have to ride fast to get back
before dark. Mr. Scott will give you an
RINE
“GLANCING BACK, HE SAW THAT THE WHITE
AS
answer to this note. Now, away you go!
and remember, when you dismount, to
keep away from Ben’s teeth.”
The father gazed proudly after his four-
teen-year-old boy, who dashed away, as
secure in his seat as if he and the noble
animal he rode were one and the same
being.
The gait was no lumbering trot, no un- | -
steady gallop, but a swinging pace—next
to a run, the swiftest gait, and at the
same time one of the easiest.
Ben was the fastest pacer in the coun-
KAVING THE ENEMY FURTHER BEHIND.”
TERMs:{ ¥00 PER ANxtM,
No. 6.
IN ADVANCE.
try around, and when he broke into a
dead run—to borrow Dick’s expressive
phrase—he “made things turn blue.”
His owner was a Southern gentleman,
whose broad acres lay in one of the love-
liest valleys of. East Tennessee, with
stretches of fertile river bottom and great
fields of rolling upland.
True to his Southwestern origin, Mr.
Dawson took great pride in his saddle
horses, and many a good story was told
among the neighbors in illustration of
Ben’s wonderful speed.
Ree er
NS |
HORSE HAD JOINED THE PURSUIT, AND HIS COURAGE ROSE AS HE PERCEIVED THAT HE WAS
