CHAPTER VI

WE TAKE POSSESSION


My barn was full of horses, but none of them was fit for farm work; so I
engaged a veterinary surgeon to find three suitable teams. By the 25th
of the month he had succeeded, and I inspected the animals and found
them satisfactory, though not so smooth and smart-looking as I had
pictured them. When I compared them, somewhat unfavorably, with the
teams used for city trucks and delivery wagons, he retorted by saying:
"I did not know that you wanted to pay $1200 a pair for your horses.
These six horses will cost you $750, and they are worth it." They were a
sturdy lot, young, well matched, not so large as to be unwieldy, but
heavy enough for almost any work. The lightest was said to weigh 1375
pounds, and the heaviest not more than a hundred pounds more. Two of the
teams were bay with a sprinkling of white feet, while the other pair was
red roan, and, to my mind, the best looking.

Four of these horses are still doing service on the farm, after more
than seven years. One of the bays died in the summer of '98, and one of
the roans broke his stifle during the following winter and had to be
shot. The bereaved relicts of these two pairs have taken kindly to each
other, and now walk soberly side by side in double harness. I sometimes
think, however, that I see a difference. The personal relation is not
just as it was in the old union,--no bickerings or disagreements, but
also no jokes and no caresses. The soft nose doesn't seek its neighbor's
neck, there is no resting of chin on friendly withers while half-closed