After the voting was over, the president called upon John Turner to
give a recitation This was the boy whom we saw on the way there.
He walked up to the platform, made a bow, and said that he had
learned two stories for his recitation, out of the paper, "Dumb
Animals." One story was about a horse, and the other was about a
dog, and he thought that they were two of the best animal stories
on record. He would tell the horse story first.

"A man in Missouri had to go to Nebraska to see about some land.
He went on horseback, on a horse that he had trained himself, and
that came at his whistle like a dog. On getting into Nebraska, he
came to a place where there were two roads. One went by a river,
and the other went over the hill. The man saw that the travel went
over the hill, but thought he'd take the river road. He didn't know
that there was a quicksand across it, and that people couldn't use it
in spring and summer. There used to be a sign board to tell
strangers about it, but it had been taken away. The man got off his
horse to let him graze, and walked along till he got so far ahead of
the horse that he had to sit down and wait for him. Suddenly he
found that he was on a quicksand. His feet had sunk in the sand,
and he could not get them out. He threw himself down, and
whistled for his horse, and shouted for help, but no one came. He
could hear some young people singing out on the river, but they
could not hear him. The terrible sand drew him in almost to his
shoulders, and he thought he was lost. At that moment the horse
came running up, and stood by his master. The man was too low
down to get hold of the saddle or bridle, so he took hold of the
horse's tail, and told him to go. The horse gave an awful pull, and
landed his master on safe ground."