Challenge Cup, may end his days harnessed to a cart. And so why should I
lament my fate! I dare say, Bill Soames will be kind to me, and he looks
as if he could ride. And so he could too, and many a prance we had on
the brick floor of that old cottage, for in spite of my lame legs and
docked tail, there was a little life and spirit left still in the poor
old nag. And through all my life, I have been _very_ lucky in one thing,
my foundations were good! Let what would happen to my legs or tail, at
any rate, my rockers never came off! So I could get on pretty fairly
even now, and Bill was as proud of me as if I had been a real flesh and
blood steed.

"Many and many a box on the ears did he get from his mother, for picking
her lilac or her roses to stick in my ears; and the day when she gave
him some old scraps of dirty ribbon was a joyous day for him. The only
pity was that his wish to adorn me to the best advantage led him in a
weak moment to accept the proposal of George Hall, the little painter,
who offered to make me as good as new! I can't bear to think of it, much
less describe _that_ operation, and you may take my word for it I should
have run away again, if I had not been tied up to the leg of the great
wooden table. Bill remarked that he had seen the farrier singe and clip
horses, and he always took good care to tie them up tight first. And so
there I was at their mercy, and I came out of their hands such a figure,
that I only wonder the nervous old cat, who lived there too, did not
have a fit at the first sight of me. I had been painted black, with
great white spots, just like big white wafers plentifully besprinkled
all over me; and they had picked out my eyes and nose with such bright
red borders, that it looked as if I breathed fire and flame, and I
should have made a capital steed for the Fire-King in the pantomime.
Bill was so delighted with me, that when I was dry and fit to be
touched, he took more pains and care of me than ever. He stabled me in a
corner, always offered me a share of his supper (but, as you may
suppose, I don't eat bread and cheese), and covered me over from the
dust with the counterpane of his own bed.

"So I was obliged to make the best of it, and bear my terrible
disfigurement as well as I could, for the sake of the good, warm-hearted
lad, who loved me so very dearly. And at last I got used to my new
colour, and even the atrocious spots, for everybody round was always
admiring me, and