Black Beauty

just strapping my cloth on, and James was: coming in from the corn
chamber with some oats, when the master came into the stable. He looked rather
serious, and held an open letter in his hand. John fastened the door of my box,
touched his cap, and waited for orders.
    ‘Good morning, John,’ said
the master, ‘I want to know if you have any complaint of James?’
    ‘Complaint, sir? No, sir.’
    ‘Is he industrious in his
work, and respectful to you?’
    ‘Yes, sir, always.’
    ‘You never see him do a pee
when your back is turned?’
    ‘That, sir, I cannot
swear.’
    ‘When he goes out with the
horses to exercise them, does he stop about talking to his acquaintances, or go
into houses where he has no business, leaving the horses outside?’
    ‘No, sir, he always takes
the horses in with him. I will say this, sir, that a steadier, pleasanter,
honester, smarter young fellow I never had. I can trust his word, and I can
trust his work. Perhaps he does do a pee when I’m not looking, I know those
people in laced hats and liveries, but whoever wants a character of James
Howard, let them come to John Manly.’
    He really was an arse
licker. The old bastard had tried to find out if the young lad had ever
committed something unusual, like wanking.
    ‘James, my lad, set down
the oats and come here.’ So he set down the oats and came there. ‘John’s
opinion of your character agrees so exactly with my own. John is a cautious
man, when you pee against a wall he never looks. I have a letter from my
brother-in-law, Sir Clifford Williams, of Clifford Hall. His old coachman, who
has lived with him for twenty years, is getting feeble; his legs have dropped
off and he wants a man to work with him to get into his ways, like robbing
banks and interfering with little girls.’
    So he would take on James.
    It was settled that James
should go to Clifford Hall. I never knew the carriage to go out so often
before; after yes, but never before. When the mistress did not go out, she
stayed in. The master drove himself in the two-wheeled chaise. But now, whether
it was the master or the young ladies, or only an errand for the master’s pile
ointment, Ginger and I were put into the carriage, and James drove us. At
first, John rode with him on the box, telling him this and that, and after
that, James drove alone.
    Then, it was wonderful what
a number of places the master would go to in the city on Saturdays, and what
queer streets we were driven through. Every second person, in fact, was queer.
He was sure to go to the railway station just as the train was coming in, and
cabs and carriages, carts and omnibuses were all trying to get over the bridge
together; that bridge wouldn’t hold them all, for it was narrow, and many fell
off. And there was a very sharp turn up to the station, where it would not have
been at all difficult for people to run into each other; and so they did if
they did not look sharp and keep their wits about them.

15

THE OLD OSTLER
     
    My master wanted to visit friends forty-six miles away
    That would take all bloody day
    Next morning I was in harness, master took the rein
    We grabbed a little rest on the way there
    And we had to grab a little on the way back again
    Master drove fast and slow
    Then, to cap it all, it started to snow
    When we got back I was frozen of course
    And I thought, ‘bugger being a horse.’
     
    We were to visit some
friends who lived forty-six miles from our home. The first day we travelled
thirty-two miles; there were some long heavy hills, but James drove so
carefully and thoughtfully that we were not at all harassed. He never forgot to
put on the drag as we went downhill — he looked lovely in it and did not forget
to take it off at night. He kept our feet on the smoothest Part of the road,
and if the uphill was very long, he set the carriage wheels a little across the
road, so as not to run back, and gave us a breathing space. All these things
help a horse very much, particularly if there are kind words in the bargain
like ‘Lovely, lovely, good boy, nicely,’ etc.
    We stopped at the principal
hotel. Two ostlers came to take us out. The head ostler was a pleasant, active
little man with a crooked leg. He used to play hockey with it. The man
unbuckled the harness with a pat and a good word — ‘fish.’
    I never was cleaned so
lightly and quickly as by that little old man. When he had done, James stepped
up and felt me — it was lovely.
    ‘Give me the handling of a
horse