Burr had been some miles from home of an errand one day. When he returned, he asked straightway for Master. He was literally trembling with excitement.
The moment Master came into the barn he burst forth:
"It beat all the horrible, dastardly tricks I ever see. Think of it, Dr. Dick, roasted a horse alive!"
"What? what do you mean?" cried Master.
"Well, I'll try and tell about it, though I'm completely cut up. You see, I was at Griner's, seeing about them potatoes, when little Jim Griner came running in, sayin' that Job Wells was burnin' of his balky horse alive.
"Griner and me jist lit out for Wells' place, but about a half a mile before we got to his house we came on the awfulest sight eyes ever see.
"There that poor, dumb brute stood just moaning with pain, but it appeared like he couldn't move, and from a dry brush fire, kindled right between his fore and hind legs, the flames were leapin' clean up around his body. Mercy on us, how the hair and flesh smelled!
"I jest pulled out my revolver and shot the poor critter dead, but I'll never forget the look in his face to my dying day, never!"
Master's indignation can better be imagined than described, as he hurriedly ordered a rig and hastened to have the inhuman wretch apprehended. There was a big time about it, but finally the fellow had to pay a heavy fine.
Master says that balkiness is, in truth, a disease, not a habit; that a horse's brain is so constituted that he can have but one idea at a time, and that, in a state of perfect health and comfort, no animal will balk; that there is some cause for it. If its mind can be diverted, it will always start on all right.