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- 
     
    
   
   
    
     73