He wanders about as he
chooses and is fat, but the coat that was once so silky and glossy is
now dull and faded, and the horse looks spiritless and dejected. Poor
Tom! The greyhound, Magic, still remembers their many, many hunts
together when the horse would try to outrun the dog, and the hound
often goes out to make him little visits, and the sight is pathetic.
That big dog of the chaplain's is still here, and how the good man can
conscientiously have him about, I cannot understand.
Colonel Knight has two large dogs also, but they are shut in the
stable most of the time to guard his pair of valuable horses. The
horses are not particularly fast or spirited, but they are very
beautiful and perfectly matched in color and gait.
Ever since Hal has been old enough to run with a horse, he has always
gone with me riding or driving. So the first time we drove with
Colonel Knight I called Hal to go with us and he ran out of the house
and over the fence with long joyful bounds, to be instantly pounced
upon, and rolled over into the acequia by the two big dogs of Colonel
Knight's that I had not even heard of! Hal has splendid fighting blood
and has never shown cowardice, but he is still a young dog and
inexperienced, and no match for even one old fighter, and to have two
notoriously savage, bloodthirsty beasts gnawing at him as though he
was a bone was terrible.
