DICK TAMING THE HORSE.
"I AM disappointed," said Mr. Stuart coming into the house one warm day the following spring. "Mr. Fuller has sold his oxen, and can't plough my land this year."
"Let me plough the garden, father," exclaimed Dick. "I'm sure old Charley and I can do it."
"You," repeated the minister smiling. "I think that would be an odd sight."
"May I try, father? It wont do any hurt for me to try."
A few days later Mr. Stuart was returning from a call on a sick parishioner, when he saw a number of men standing near the wall which separated his garden from the main road. Wondering what had called the people together, he hurried toward them.
Standing in the midst of the ploughed ground was Dick talking to old Charley, who it seemed had been inclined to be refractory, and who had been dealt with after the Rarey fashion.
This method of taming refractory horses was much talked of at the time, and though Dick had never seen it actually put in force, he had seen and studied the illustrations in a popular pictorial.
Accordingly when Charley was fastened to the plough; and when after being politely requested to move along, he did not budge an inch, but only looked around at his young master with disdain, Richard thought it a good opportunity to show him that he must submit.
When Mr. Stuart came in sight, he had been thrown to his knees twice by the wonder working strap, and now seemed quite subdued.