, that seemed as if he was dead.
There was a heavy rope knotted round his neck, and fastened to his empty
rack. Miss Laura stepped carefully between his feet, cut the rope and
going outside the stall spoke kindly to him. He moved his ears slightly,
raised his head, tried to get up, fell back again, tried again, and
succeeded in staggering outdoors after Miss Laura, who kept encouraging
him, and then he fell down on the grass.

Fleetfoot stared at the miserable-looking creature as if he did not know
what it was. The horse had no sores on his body, as the cow had, nor was
he quite so lean; but he was the weakest, most distressed-looking animal
that I ever saw. The flies settled on him, and Miss Laura had to keep
driving them away. He was a white horse, with some kind of pale-colored
eyes, and whenever he turned them on Miss Laura, she would look away.
She did not cry, as she often did over the sick and suffering animals.
This seemed too bad for tears. She just hovered over that poor horse
with her face as white as her dress, and an expression of fright in her
eyes. Oh, how dirty he was! I would never have imagined that a horse
could get in such a condition.

All this had only taken a few minutes, and just after she got the horse
out, Mr. Harry appeared. He came out of the house with a slow step, that
quickened to a run when he saw Miss Laura. "Laura!" he exclaimed, "what
are you doing?" Then he stopped and looked at the horse, not in
amazement, but very sorrowfully. "Barron is gone," he said, and
crumpling up a piece of paper, he put it in his pocket "What is to be
done for these animals? There is a cow, isn't there?"

He stepped to the door of the log hut, glanced in, and said, quickly:
"Do you feel able to drive home?"

"Yes," said Miss Laura.

"Sure?" and he eyed her anxiously.

"Yes, yes," she returned; "what shall I get?"

"Just tell father that Barron has run away and left a starving pig, cow,
and horse. There's not a thing to eat here. He'll know what to do. I'll
drive you to the road."

Miss Laura got into the buggy and Mr. Harry jumped in after her. He
drove her to the road and put down the bars; then he said: "Go straight
on. You'll soon be on the open road, and there's nothing to harm you.
Joe will look after you. Meanwhile I'll go back to the house and heat
some water."

Miss Laura let Fleetfoot go as fast as he liked on the way home, and it
only seemed a few minutes before we drove into the yard. A