She told him how to anticipate a command, that he might obey, instantly, and he afterwards became so proficient in this sense that when he came to be trained to harness he obeyed Silas Whitman’s every gesture, as if instinctively, often before the words themselves came. In later life, becoming more experienced, he often took the initiative in times of danger or peril.[4]
When True was a little over a year old Master Whitman brought a piebald horse to live in their stable. Poor old Ceph was of low birth and very stupid.
“In the Desert,” Gipsey told him, “the Arabs say, ‘if piebald, flee him as the pestilence, for he is own brother to a cow’!”
Ceph turned out to be a “stump-sucker” or “piper,” and the grunts and groans accompanying his gnawing disturbed the other two horses intensely. At last when he began on the partition between his stall and True’s it was too much for the colt to bear in silence and patience. He determined to cure him in some way, though at first he did not see how it was to be done.
One day, however, a bit of chain was left hanging on his manger and, when he pushed it with his nose, it made a jangling noise. Ceph, always curious, stopped his “cribbing” long enough to listen, dully, with his flapping ears, and to wonder what it was.
After a short time True found, to his surprise and satisfaction, that he could lift the chain with his teeth and, as he was now tall enough for his chin to reach the top of the partition, it occurred to him he could use the bit of iron to very good advantage.
He laid his plans accordingly and bade Caesar be on hand to see the fun.
About midnight Ceph began to gnaw.
Quick as wink True had the chain in his teeth and over the wall it went—crack—right between Ceph’s floppy ears!
Such amazement there never was in any dull horse’s quiet, stupid mind! He squealed and sprang one side, startled into anger and affright. But when he recovered himself all was still; no suspicious noises came from his neighbor’s stall.