and in momentary danger of being kicked to pieces; but Mrs. Grant
received the announcement with perfect calmness, feeling sure that
Ulysses would not amuse himself in that way unless he knew the
animals thoroughly understood what he was doing.

Certainly this confidence in the boy's judgment was entirely
justified as far as horses were concerned, for they were the joy
of his life and he was never so happy as when playing or working
in or about the stables. Indeed, he was not nine years old when
he began to handle a team in the fields. From that time forward
he welcomed every duty that involved riding, driving or caring for
horses, and shirked every other sort of work about the farm and
tannery. Fortunately, there was plenty of employment for him in
the line of carting materials or driving the hay wagons and harrows,
and his father, finding that he could be trusted with such duties,
allowed him, before he reached his teens, to drive a 'bus or
stage between Georgetown and the neighboring villages entirely by
himself. In fact, he was given such free use of the horses that
when it became necessary for him to help in the tannery, he would
take a team and do odd jobs for the neighbors until he earned enough,
with the aid of the horses, to hire a boy to take his place in the
hated tan-yard.

This and other work was, of course, only done out of school hours,
for his parents sent him as early as possible to a local "subscription"
school, which he attended regularly for many years. "Spare the
rod and spoil the child" was one of the maxims of the school, and
the first duty of the boys on assembling each morning was to gather
a good-sized bundle of beech-wood switches, of which the schoolmaster
made such vigorous use that before the sessions ended the supply