James was the first to rise, and generally had his cows nearly milked by the time the rest got into the yard, and was ready either to work among his potatoes or to sit down to study till breakfast was ready, and the black cow was always milked before Bertie got along.
Bert imagined James had some method of charming the cow, and resolved to find out, so getting up before light he hid himself in the barn. By-and-by James came out and sitting down to the cow leaned his head against her and began to sing an old folk ditty to make a cow give down her milk, and Bertie’s quick ear discovered to his astonishment that James had both an ear and most excellent voice for singing, though so great was his diffidence and power of concealment that no one of the family had ever suspected it before. Bertie told his father and mother.
“If that is so,” said Mrs. Whitman, “let us get Walter Conly to keep a singing school this winter, and let James and our children go, we need better music in the church, most of the choir have sung out.”
When snow came they harnessed up the colt in a most singular vehicle called a drag, made of rough poles, the shafts and runners being made of the same pole. The harness they made of straw rope, which James, who had been taught at the workhouse, showed them how to twist with an instrument that he made, called a throw-crook. It was made of a crooked piece of wood bent at one end and a swivel in the other end by which he fastened it to his waist, and turned it with one hand, while one of the boys attached the straw and walked backwards as it twisted. He told them great use was made of these ropes in England to bind loads of hay and grain, and to secure stacks of grain. They braided the straw to make the saddle, and twisted hickory withes for bit and bridle. They put Bertie and Maria on the sled and the docile creature drew them to the schoolhouse with some help; there he was fastened in the sun beneath the lee of the woods and fed.
When school was done at night the creature, colt-like, and limber as an eel, had twisted round, gnawed off the straw halter, then the shoulder-strap, which permitted the traces to fall, and then being freed from the drag he rubbed against the tree to which he had been fastened till he broke the girth and freed himself from the saddle; and ended by devouring the whole harness, except the bridle, even to the reins.
“Oh, you little monkey,” cried Bertie, “if I had given you that straw at home you would have turned up your nose at it. How do you think Maria is going to get home? She won’t bake you any more corn cakes nor give you any more sweet apples.”
The snow was quite deep; they put Maria on the drag, James and Peter and the Wood boys hauled the drag, and Bertie led the colt after the vehicle. They made another straw harness, but took care to fasten him with a leather halter and hitch him short.
The inhabitants of the district and the scholars were so much attached to Mr. Conly that they assessed themselves to keep the school that was out in February through March, Mr. Whitman offering to board him the entire month. The days were so long that James found much time to work in the shop, both before and after school. Mr. Whitman was making a pair of wheels, tongue and axle-tree for one of his neighbors, and finding how much progress James had made in handling tools, availed himself of his help. When the job was finished, James, with some aid from Mr. Whitman, made an axle-tree, wheels and shafts, with which to break the colt. He had just put the finishing stroke to his work by boring the linchpin holes, and sitting down upon the axle-tree and contemplating it, he said,—
“There, I have done all I know how to do to those wheels; I don’t know whether they’ll run off or on, but I hope they will answer the purpose.”
The old gentleman was in the shop making a grain cradle, he viewed the work, took off the wheels, measured the shoulder, and the taper of the ends of the axle, and said,—