and kiss you after her fashion; Mustang, an
irrepressible and rude savage from the Rio Grande region; Brutus,
Caesar, and Draco; a Broncho beauty; a Sprite; a stately stepping
Abdallah; Jim, who was a character; and a Bucephalus, after that
storied steed who would suffer no one to ride but his master, the
Great Alexander, but for him to mount, would kneel and wait.

It is perhaps needless and an insult to their intelligence for me to
say that they all know their own names as well as you know yours. They
know, too, their numbers when they are acting as soldiers formed in
line waiting orders; the Professor passes along and checking them off
with his forefinger numbers them, then falling back, calls out for
certain ones to form into platoons, and they make no mistake. Their
ears are alert, their senses sharp, their memory good. "Number Two,"
"Number Four," and so on, answer by advancing, as a soldier would
respond to the roll-call.

They came around from the stable an hour before the performance and
went up the stairs by which the audience went; and a crowd used to
gather every afternoon and evening to see that remarkable and free
feat.

[Illustration: PRINCE.]

When the curtain rose there was to be seen a small stage carpeted
ankle deep with saw-dust, where Professor Bartholomew purposed to have
his horses act; first the part of a school, then of a court room, last
a military drill and taking of a fort. They came in one after another,
pretending, if that is not too strong a word, that they were on the
way to school, and that was the playground; and there they played
together, with such soft, graceful action, such caressing ways, and
trippings as dainty as in "Pinafore," until at the ringing of a bell
they came at once to order from their mixed-up, mazy pastime, and
waited the arrival of their teacher, the Professor, who entered with a
schoolmaster air, and gave the order.

"Bucephalus, take my hat, and bring me a chair!" as you might tell
James or John to do the same, and with more promptness than they would
have shown, Bucephalus came forward, took the hat between his teeth,
carried it across the stage and placed it on a desk, and brought a
chair.

[Illustration: SPRITE AS A MATHEMATICIAN.]

The master, seating himself, began the business of the day, saying,
"The school will now form two classes; the large scholars will go to
the left, the small ones to the right;" and six magnificent creatures
separated themse