"The hocks are sprung in and turned a little."
"A very little. Only the eye of David could see it and know that it is wrong!"
"A small flaw makes the stone break. At a rotten knot-hole the great tree snaps in the storm. And a small sin may undermine a good man. The hind legs are wrong, Elijah."
"To be sure. In a colt. Many things seem wrong in a colt, but in the grown horse they disappear!"
"This fault will not disappear. It is the set of the joint and that can never be changed. It can only grow worse."
Elijah, staring straight ahead, was searching his brain, but that brain was numbed by the calamity which had befallen him. He could only stroke the lovely head of the little colt and pray for help.
"Yesterday," he said at length in a trembling voice, "Elijah, as a fool, spoke words which angered his master. Back on my head I call them now. David, do not judge Timeh with a wrathful heart.
"Let the sins of Elijah fall on the head of Elijah, but let Timeh go unpunished for my faults."
"You grow old, Elijah, and you forget. The judgment of David is never colored by his own likes and dislikes, his own wishes and prejudice. He sees the right, and therefore his judgments are true."
"Aye, David, but truth is not merciful, and blessed above all things is mercy. When you see Timeh, think of Elijah. How he has watched over the colt, and loved it, and played with it, and taught it, by the hours, the proper manners for a colt and a mare of the Garden of Eden."