| We call €™em yearlings an€™ colts when they€™re young. When they€™re aged we pound €™em€”in this pastur€™. Horse, sonny, is what you start from. We know all about horse here, an€™ he ain€™t any high-toned, pure souled child o€™ nature. Horse, plain horse, same ez you, is chock-full o€™ tricks, an€™ meannesses, an€™ cussednesses, an€™ shirkin€™s, an€™ monkey-shines, which he€™s took over from his sire an€™ his dam, an€™ thickened up with his own special fancy in the way o€™ goin€™ crooked. Thet€™s horse, an€™ thet€™s about his dignity an€™ the size of his soul €™fore he€™s been broke an€™ rawhided a piece. | This is from "A Walking Delegate" from The Day's Work. A group of horses, most of them well-trained and skilled, are together in a Vermont pasture. Hpwever, one is a 'wall-eyed, yellow frame house of a horse' sent up to board from a livery-stable in the town. As a horse, he is clearly not a desirable animal, and he turns out to be a socialist agitator, who tries to persuade the others to rise against 'Man the Oppressor'. The other horses are not impressed, and here one of them points out that until a horse has been properly trained and disciplined he is no use to anyone. It is much the same with men. |