Directly he had repeated the last verse of the fable—which he did without thinking at all of its meaning—Maurice bounded off from the drawing-room into the garden. In a moment he had unfastened the horse, and placing his foot in the stirrup, had sprung on its back. Then he called out: “Gee-up, Cressida! gee-up, my friend!”
Cressida, after shaking its head and flowing mane, started off at a gallop, putting out its legs in the most graceful way imaginable. Because I have said that Cressida was a wooden horse, you picture it to yourselves perhaps as resembling other wooden horses that you have seen,—pretty toy horses, no doubt: but either they have been only rocking-horses, or they have just moved a little means of some mechanism which does not produce the real action of a horse. Cressida was like none of these; but lifted up its legs one after the other with the grace and elegance of a thoroughbred English horse.
Yes, certainly, for a horse made of wood, it was very wonderful. It had a curving neck, a long black tail. The muscles were marked, as you see in well-bred horses; the chest was powerful, the head small, the ears delicate, the eyes full of fire, and the skin was soft and glossy. Add to all this that every time you stroked Cressida on the neck it neighed joyously, and it obeyed the bridle like the most docile Arab horse.
It had many other precious qualities; but were I to tell you all, this book would not contain the description: I should be obliged to make a second volume. I will only add, therefore, that this wonderful horse could remain without food or drink for any length of time that circumstances might render convenient.
Unfortunately I can give no precise details concerning the birth, education, or infantine peculiarities of Cressida. It would even be impossible to learn them now; for the only person who knew anything about them—the old man who gave the horse to my little friend—is no longer alive. We know very little even of this old man himself. He was a native of Nuremberg, an ancient city of Germany, where it is supposed that clocks were first invented. It seems that in his own country, Fritz—for that was the only name we knew him by—had been considered an extraordinary mechanician; and he was driven away from Nuremberg through the jealousy and enmity of a rich and powerful Burgomaster of the city, who had a turn for mechanical inventions himself.
The invention upon which this Burgomaster most prided himself, was an automaton, or wooden figure, of a woman, which walked, and smirked, and smiled, like a real lady; but he could not make her speak. Fritz, who was then young, devoted himself to a similar work; and made a figure representing a young peasant-girl, who could say, “Good morning,” and inquire after your health; and, if you took her by the hand, would look down with admirable modesty and grace. The success of Fritz gave great offence to the Burgomaster; and there grew up between the two, first a rivalry, then an enmity, which at last caused Fritz to leave the city.
When little Maurice first knew him, Fritz could hardly have been less than seventy-five years old: he was so old that his hair was quite white, his head shook a little, and he only walked by the help of a stick. He lived as if he was very poor, in a small cottage near the house of Maurice’s parents. Whenever Maurice saw him, the little boy always wished him good morning, and stopped to talk to him. Fritz was very much pleased with these attentions, and began to feel a strong affection for the child; who was not slow to return it.
The child’s instinct told him that Fritz was good and unfortunate, deserving to be loved and pitied. And indeed he did deserve pity. In the decline of his life, not only did he live in poverty, but the peasants of the village he had chosen for his retreat, hurt perhaps by the coldness and reserve of his manners, used to laugh at him, and sometimes insult him. The boys of the place, generally mischievous and badly brought up, would run after him, and mimicking his German accent, inquire whether he had a cold in his head that he was obliged to speak through his nose.
HE SHOWED MAURICE HOW TO SIT THE HORSE FIRMLY AND GRACEFULLY.