Star: The Story of an Indian Pony

by Forrestine C. Hooker

"Have you, too, heard them talk?" Running Deer questioned the Old White Horse which had kept silent all this time.

"I do not belong to an officer," he said. "I am only a troop horse. A soldier rides me and we must follow the officers. My rider is an old soldier. I am a very old troop horse. Our duty is to obey, not ask questions, nor reason. Whether we are on parade or fighting, all I have to remember is to mind the reins quickly, to listen sharply for the bugle calls, and to keep my eyes fixed on the little pointed flag of our troop. For that is the troop guidon. Where it leads, we follow."

"We horses do not want to fight you ponies," the Big Gray Horse went on as the Old White Horse stopped speaking. "We have no quarrel between us."

"Maybe if the Indians and the white men could understand one another's talk it would stop the fighting," Running Deer joined the conversation again. "We horses understand one another and we do not want to fight. Preloch understood the Comanche tongue, and she did not fight them. She made peace between those who wished to fight in the tribe. When people do not understand one another that must be the reason for all the trouble!"

"Then white men never fight with one another!" Star exclaimed suddenly.

The Big Gray Horse and the Old White Horse hung their heads and were silent, while the two Comanche ponies looked at them.

"Do the white men fight one another?" demanded Running Deer at last.

"Yes, sometimes," the Big Gray Horse replied. "There are white men who steal, kill, betray, and oppress the weak and helpless. Those who know the law and break it are punished by the law."

"But the Indians do not know the white man's law, neither do they speak the same tongue," snorted Running Deer, while her eyes showed little red sparks of anger. "It was the white men who fought the Quahadas and took away Preloch and Prairie Flower."

"The Comanches had killed and stolen white women and children," replied the Big Gray Horse. "So that was why the white men fought the Indians and took Quannah's mother and sister captive."