been there all night, and had done no harm. If she had been able to

speak likely she would have said, “Some of the other horses must have broken the fence and eaten the grain.” Father was always up early in the morning, but the white mare was earlier. One morning she stoppeda little too long and he saw her getting back into the pas- ture. She got many beatings for her thieving but they did not stop her from it. She adopted another trick in place of jumping back into the pasture; she would jump out to the woods and hide and give us a lot of trouble finding her. One day, after a heavy rain, my little brother and I were gathering grain. We let Bloss loose to feed on the meadow near us; there was good fresh grass but that did not satis- fy her. She soon got into the grain; she gave us a lot of trouble, try- ing to keep her out. The grain was sweet and she persisted in getting at it; we drove her away several times but she would be back again in a few minutes. At last I determined to give her a thorough scare. I hunted up a strong switch and when she came back again I crept up to her, with the switch hidden behind me, and caught her. I got on her bare back and without any bridle, I laid on the switch with all my might. I thought I would teach her one good lasting lesson, or give her a punishment for not learning former lessons; that was the way some of the masters taught us at school, but it did not work on the old mare. She had horse sense enough but, like the drunkard, she could not resist the temptation; her appetite overcame her good sense. When I laid the switch onto her she started to run; she was going at a Wild pace when her front feet went into a soft place in a deep hol- low, and over she went, like a boy turning a somersault. The force of her hind part going up lifted me off her back and sent me flying through the air, like a missile flung from a catapult. When the speed got dangerously great, just before she fell, I called out, "Whoa, whoa”, and when flying through the air I kept on calling “Whoa, Whoa.” I lit on my feet but did not fall I ran like a boy jumping off a swiftly moving carriage. When 'I could stop my speed enough to look back I saw my little brother doubled up laughing. Bloss was on her back in the muddy hollow, kicking her four white legs as fast as they were going before she tumbled. She was like a mechanical toy, gOing after it falls, and while yet wound up. She could not right her- self up enough to rise, and we did not dare go near her swiftly mov-

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