"There is one thing," said Daredevil, as her mate paused, "if only men knew half as much as they think they do, they would never pound and abuse a mustang pony. There is lots of work and endurance in us, if well treated; and we can appreciate kindness as well as a thoroughbred, if they will give us time enough to realize it. We have no sort of chance to be good, and the way they treat us would spoil any creature."
There was a little silence after the mustangs had ceased speaking, and then "Jennie," a livery horse, spoke.
"Well, you certainly have had a hard life and probably always will, but if there is any fate to be prayed to be delivered from, it is the fate of a livery horse. We are always on the road. Why, this is the first night I've been in this week, and every sound I hear I think they are coming for me. I have grown so nervous that I can't sleep, and my whole body aches.
"A drummer hired us last week on Wednesday, to drive out to S——, nineteen miles. Said he would be there all day and possibly all night. Do you know he only stopped there about half an hour, gave us—Nellie and I—some water and then drove fifteen miles to L——; there he had us fed and watered, and in an hour was off fourteen miles to K——. It was late when we got there, and by daylight he was on his way here, a good forty miles by the nearest route. We had barely been rubbed and fed, when a young man wanted a team to take his girl to a party ten miles out. The boss, supposing we had been in the barn at S—— all the time since the morning before, only while going the thirty-eight miles there and back, sent us out again.
"It did seem to me when they began to harness us that I should scream right out; how I longed for the power of human speech!
"My, but didn't that fellow drive!
"We acted pretty tired, I suppose, for presently the girl said: 'John, don't drive so fast, the poor horses seem tired.'
"'Nonsense, they are livery horses, and that is one of their tricks.'
"He tied us, dripping with sweat, in an open shed and left us until near morning. Actually we were so stiff we could not seem to get along at all, but he was not sparing of the whip.
"We were in until afternoon some time, and one of the boys used us to carry a couple of women to S——. He rested us an hour and then came home again.