A tree was all that saved the boy’s life. Swinging up by a low-hanging branch, with the agility of a cat, he found himself out of breath and out of reach of the colt’s gleaming teeth. From wide, scarlet nostrils the hot and excited breath of the maddened animal reached his bare feet.
The Tory scent that came down to True only increased his anger, but not being able to reach the boy, he resolved that the kicking he owed him could be postponed—for years, if necessary—but some day, some day, it would be delivered! Furthermore—he would kick nothing until that day arrived and he met this boy again on level ground!
How he kept his vow we shall see later.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] According to Joseph Battell. Encyclopedia Britannica says 1793.
[2] In 1776, Sir William Howe commanded an army of 55,000 men in an effort to put down “the wicked rebellion.”
CHAPTER II.
TRUE IS BROKEN TO HARNESS.
Even, pleasant and cheerful was True’s natural disposition, but besides these traits there were others that went to make up the peculiar perfection horse-flesh had attained in the twenty-five years before his birth.
A courage, vitality, and zest seemed to be in the very air of the world at that period of horse history, and the blend—through his father—of Arabian, Barb and Turk had produced in him the most ideal of horse characters.