Our stalls were so far apart that we could not talk much, so I knew almost nothing about him until one morning Bob put me in one sleigh for Master and Prince in another for Dr. Fred.
Such a time as the boy had to get that horse hitched up. He would not stand, and was rearing and jerking the whole time.
"Ain't he a beauty?" cried Dr. Fred, proudly. "Most too much of a horse for you to manage, ain't he, Bob? Here, Prince, be quiet, sir!" The animal quieted a little and looked at him.
"See, he minds me. You must use authority in your tone when—" but the sentence never was finished, for just at that moment the "beauty" reached out and caught his admirer by the shoulder, lifting him off his feet at the first shake.
Then there was a scene! That brute shook his master as a cat would a rat, despite the frantic blows dealt by Fred's left hand and Bob's vigorous fists. Dr. Dick was in the office, but the noise drew him barely in time to see his brother flung a dozen feet or more into a snowdrift.
I am afraid that Master smiled, it seemed so to me, anyway; but he, of course, rushed to the rescue.
No sooner did Fred get on his feet than he flew at that horse with the butt of a riding whip, raining down the blows alike on the face, over the head, anywhere he could strike in his wild anger.
"I'll teach you, you wretch! I'll make you suffer!" and kindred remarks, shot explosively from his mouth.
Master, white to the lips, now interfered, but only conquered by superior muscle, for Fred was crazed with pain and anger. Of course, had he been a horse he would have had to endure ten times as much suffering and injustice quietly, but he was a man and bent on revenge. I do not think Prince did right, indeed he did very wrong, but he had far less than most horses have to endure. Oft-times I had seen Dr. Fred strike Ross or the bays for nothing at all; simply he was out of sorts, so I could not pity him much.
"Don't call the entire neighborhood together," said Master, "you are acting very silly! Go in the house and have Nannie bathe your shoulder, and I will try the new horse awhile. Bob, you may put Dandy back."