Black Beauty Read Online Free PDF

might. I soon broke a lot of harness, and kicked
myself clear; so that was an end of that place.
    "After this I was sent to Tattersall's to be sold; of course I
could not be warranted free from vice, so nothing was said about
that. My handsome appearance and good paces soon brought a
gentleman to bid for me, and I was bought by another dealer; he
tried me in all kinds of ways and with different bits, and he soon
found out what I could not bear. At last he drove me quite without
a check-rein, and then sold me as a perfectly quiet horse to a
gentleman in the country; he was a good master, and I was getting
on very well, but his old groom left him and a new one came. This
man was as hard-tempered and hard-handed as Samson; he always spoke
in a rough, impatient voice, and if I did not move in the stall the
moment he wanted me, he would hit me above the hocks with his
stable broom or the fork, whichever he might have in his hand.
Everything he did was rough, and I began to hate him; he wanted to
make me afraid of him, but I was too high-mettled for that, and one
day when he had aggravated me more than usual I bit him, which of
course put him in a great rage, and he began to hit me about the
head with a riding whip. After that he never dared to come into my
stall again; either my heels or my teeth were ready for him, and he
knew it. I was quite quiet with my master, but of course he
listened to what the man said, and so I was sold again.
    "The same dealer heard of me, and said he thought he knew one
place where I should do well. ''Twas a pity,' he said, 'that such a
fine horse should go to the bad, for want of a real good chance,'
and the end of it was that I came here not long before you did; but
I had then made up my mind that men were my natural enemies and
that I must defend myself. Of course it is very different here, but
who knows how long it will last? I wish I could think about things
as you do; but I can't, after all I have gone through."
    "Well," I said, "I think it would be a real shame if you were to
bite or kick John or James."
    "I don't mean to," she said, "while they are good to me. I did
bite James once pretty sharp, but John said, 'Try her with
kindness,' and instead of punishing me as I expected, James came to
me with his arm bound up, and brought me a bran mash and stroked
me; and I have never snapped at him since, and I won't either."
    I was sorry for Ginger, but of course I knew very little then,
and I thought most likely she made the worst of it; however, I
found that as the weeks went on she grew much more gentle and
cheerful, and had lost the watchful, defiant look that she used to
turn on any strange person who came near her; and one day James
said, "I do believe that mare is getting fond of me, she quite
whinnied after me this morning when I had been rubbing her
forehead."
    "Ay, ay, Jim, 'tis 'the Birtwick balls'," said John, "she'll be
as good as Black Beauty by and by; kindness is all the physic she
wants, poor thing!" Master noticed the change, too, and one day
when he got out of the carriage and came to speak to us, as he
often did, he stroked her beautiful neck. "Well, my pretty one,
well, how do things go with you now? You are a good bit happier
than when you came to us, I think."
    She put her nose up to him in a friendly, trustful way, while he
rubbed it gently.
    "We shall make a cure of her, John," he said.
    "Yes, sir, she's wonderfully improved; she's not the same
creature that she was; it's 'the Birtwick balls', sir," said John,
laughing.
    This was a little joke of John's; he used to say that a regular
course of "the Birtwick horseballs" would cure almost any vicious
horse; these balls, he said, were made up of patience and
gentleness, firmness and petting, one pound of each to be mixed up
with half a pint of common sense, and given to the horse every
day.

Chapter 9 Merrylegs
    Mr. Blomefield, the vicar, had a large family of boys and girls;
sometimes they used to come and play with Miss Jessie