Black Beauty

food. He would have
been pleased he could make some pussy cat happy.
    Jeremiah had now to look
out for another horse, and first he looked out the window but couldn’t see one.
He stood on the cliffs of Dover looking through a telescope for one. He soon
heard of one through an acquaintance who was under-groom in a nobleman’s
stables; he put his ear to the acquaintance and through him, sure enough, he
could hear a valuable young horse. But he had smashed into another carriage,
flung his lordship out, and the coachman had orders to look round — he already
looked round through over eating — and sell him as well as he could.
    ‘I can do with high
spirits,’ said Jeremiah Barker, ‘as long as he doesn’t kick me in the balls.’
    ‘He tries to, but he
misses,’ said the man.
    Our governor (the coachman,
I mean) had him harnessed in as tight and strong as he could; his four legs
were tied together. My belief is, that is what caused the accident.
    The next day, Hotspur came
home; he was a fine brown horse.
    ‘Hello Hotspur,’ I said.
    The first night, he was
very restless; instead of lying down, he kept jerking his halter; surely he
would go blind. However, the next day, after five or six hours in the cab, he
came in quiet and sensible; the cabman had gained a good horse. He had cost
Jeremiah nine pounds, and he had paid cash.
    Hotspur thought it a great
come down to be a cab-horse, and disguised himself as a donkey. In fact, he
settled in well, and master liked him very much, and discarded his donkey
disguise.

45

JERRY’S NEW YEAR
     
    It was one New Year’s day
    Freezing weather was here to stay
    We had a late pickup, eleven o’clock
    We waited till it was two of the clock
    Our customers came out and pee’d against a tree
    By then, it was half past three
    When they didn’t want to go any more
    It was half past bloody four
    They said they hadn’t the fare
    So we didn’t take them anywhere.
     
    Christmas and the New Year
are very merry times for some people to get pissed; but for cabmen and cabmen’s
horses it is no holiday. There are so many big parties, and big balls.
Sometimes driver and horse have to wait for hours in the rain or frost,
shivering with cold, and whilst the merry people within are dancing away to the
music, cabmen outside are dying of hypothermia. I saw a horse standing till his
legs got stiff with cold, ice and rheumatism; think of horses standing till
their legs get stiff with cold, ice and rheumatism.
    I had most of the evening
work now, as I was well accustomed to standing covered in ice, and Jeremiah was
also more afraid of Hotspur taking cold — he didn’t give a fuck about me. We
had a great deal of late work in the Christmas week, and Jeremiah’s cough was
bad; he gobbed up huge things that looked like breaking eggs when they hit the
pavement; but however late we were, Polly sat up for him with a meat pie, and
came out with the lantern so he could see it.
    On the evening of the New
Year, we had to take two gentlemen to a house in the West End. We were told to
come again at eleven. ‘But,’ said one of them, ‘as it is a card party, you may
have to wait a few minutes, but don’t be late.’
    As the clock struck eleven
we were at the door, for Jerry was always punctual. The clock chimed the
quarters — one, two, three, and then struck twelve, but the door did not open.
    The wind had been very
changeable, with squalls of rain during the day, but now it came on a sharp
driving sleet, which seemed to come all the way round; it was very cold.
    At a quarter past one, the
door opened and the two gentlemen came out; they chipped at Jeremiah with ice
picks till he was free, then told him where to drive, which was nearly two
miles away. When the men got out, they never said they were sorry to have kept
us waiting, but were angry at the charge. They had to pay for the two hours and
a quarter waiting; but it was hard-earned money to Jeremiah.
    At last we got home. He
could hardly speak and I could hardly neigh; his cough was dreadful and he was
gobbing great egg yolks. Polly opened the door with a meat pie and held the
lantern for him.
    ‘Get Jack something warm,
then boil a pot of gruel, then put me in it.’
    This was said in a hoarse
whisper (I too had a horse whisper); he could hardly get his breath. Polly
brought me a warm mash and spread it over my frozen bed. That made me comfortable,
and then they locked the door.
    It was late die next
morning before any one came, and