anxious and harassed; but I soon found that I could perfectly trust my
driver, and then I made myself easy and got used to it.

Jerry was as good a driver as I had ever known, and what was better, he
took as much thought for his horses as he did for himself. He soon found
out that I was willing to work and do my best, and he never laid the
whip on me unless it was gently drawing the end of it over my back when
I was to go on; but generally I knew this quite well by the way in which
he took up the reins, and I believe his whip was more frequently stuck
up by his side than in his hand.

In a short time I and my master understood each other as well as horse
and man can do. In the stable, too, he did all that he could for our
comfort. The stalls were the old-fashioned style, too much on the slope;
but he had two movable bars fixed across the back of our stalls, so that
at night, and when we were resting, he just took off our halters and
put up the bars, and thus we could turn about and stand whichever way we
pleased, which is a great comfort.

Jerry kept us very clean, and gave us as much change of food as he
could, and always plenty of it; and not only that, but he always gave us
plenty of clean fresh water, which he allowed to stand by us both night
and day, except of course when we came in warm. Some people say that a
horse ought not to drink all he likes; but I know if we are allowed to
drink when we want it we drink only a little at a time, and it does us
a great deal more good than swallowing down half a bucketful at a time,
because we have been left without till we are thirsty and miserable.
Some grooms will go home to their beer and leave us for hours with our
dry hay and oats and nothing to moisten them; then of course we gulp
down too much at once, which helps to spoil our breathing and sometimes
chills our stomachs. But the best thing we had here was our Sundays for
rest; we worked so hard in the week that I do not think we could have
kept up to it but for that day; besides, we had then time to enjoy each
other's company. It was on these days that I learned my companion's
history.

34 An Old War Horse

Captain had been broken in and trained for an army horse; his first
owner was an officer of cavalry going out to the Crimean war. He said he
quite enjoyed the training with all the other horses, trotting together,
turning together, to the right hand or the left, halting at the word of
command, or dash