ook
good as ever. You don't know much about horses, Sam, I expect. Why, OUR
ole horse--"

"Do you expect he's hungry now?" asked Sam, staring at Whitey.

"Let's try him," said Penrod. "Horses like hay and oats the best; but
they'll eat most anything."

"I guess they will. He's tryin' to eat that manger up right now, and I
bet it ain't good for him."

"Come on," said Penrod, closing the door that gave entrance to the
stalls. "We got to get this horse some drinkin'-water and some good
food."

They tried Whitey's appetite first with an autumnal branch that they
wrenched from a hardy maple in the yard. They had seen horses nibble
leaves, and they expected Whitey to nibble the leaves of this
branch; but his ravenous condition did not allow him time for cool
discriminations. Sam poked the branch at him from the passageway, and
Whitey, after one backward movement of alarm, seized it venomously.

"Here! You stop that!" Sam shouted. "You stop that, you ole horse, you!"

"What's the matter?" called Penrod from the hydrant, where he was
filling a bucket. "What's he doin' now?"

"Doin'! He's eatin' the wood part, too! He's chewin' up sticks as big as
baseball bats! He's crazy!"

Penrod rushed to see this sight, and stood aghast.

"Take it away from him, Sam!" he commanded sharply.

"Go on, take it away from him yourself!" was the prompt retort of his
comrade.

"You had no biz'nuss to give it to him," said Penrod. "Anybody with any
sense ought to know it'd make him sick. What'd you want to go and give
it to him for?"

"Well, you didn't say not to."

"Well, what if I didn't? I never said I did, did I? You go on in that
stall and take it away from him."

"YES, I will!" Sam returned bitterly. Then, as Whitey had dragged the
remains of the branch from the manger to the floor of the stall, Sam
scrambled to the top of the manger and looked over. "There ain't much
left to TAKE away! He's swallered it all except some splinters. Better
give him the water to try and wash it down with." And, as Penrod
complied, "My gracious, look at that horse DRINK!"

They gave Whitey four buckets of water, and then debated the question of
nourishment. Obviously, this horse could not be trusted with branches,
and, after getting their knees black and their backs sodden, they gave
up trying to pull enough grass to sustain him. Then Penrod remembered
that horses like apples, both "cooking-apples" and "eating-apples", and
Sam mentioned the f