I thought she would cheer Master up if anybody could, but though he smiled often he grew quickly thoughtful again. Plenty of people came for him, and after a while he bought another horse named Dexter. I knew he owned John and Jean just as much as Fred did, but I suppose he thought best to leave them where they were.
After a while Queen and Julie were sent out. I wondered at first, until they told me they were worn out and had been sent out to pick up.
"I know what it means," said Julie. "We are to be patched up and sold. We've served him (Dr. Fred) until we are used up; now we'll go to the first bidder."
It proved true, and in two weeks a rough-looking man drove them away. Several years after, while waiting at a gateway for Master, I noticed something familiar-looking about an old horse attached to the separator of a threshing machine.
I could not place her at first, but as they came nearer I saw it was Julie, or what might be her walking skeleton. I spoke to her as she was stopped near me.
"Oh, Dandy!" she cried. "I am glad to see you, and you don't look a day older!"
I asked her about herself and Queen. "It is a common story," she said. "Queen was run to death one night by some wild boys. First she fell down, but they pounded her till she got up; she staggered on a little further and fell again, the blood gushing from nose and mouth. They left her there, and in the morning she was dead.
"I envy her, though," said Julie. "Better be dead than dying, I say."
Just then the man belonging on the separator came up, and with an oath bade her hold up her head.