The brown ears shot forward to attention at the sound, and as the head
reached out to investigate, the snapping fingers repeated the invitation,
and without hesitation the magnificent creature went forward obediently
until the hand was once more resting on the dark muzzle.
The trusting beauty of the surrender seemed to break some spell that had
held us silent since the beginning of the catching. "Oh, Jack! Isn't he
a beauty?" I cried unconsciously putting my admiration into a question.
But Jack no longer objected to questions. He turned towards us with
soft, shining eyes. "There's not many like him," he said, pulling at one
of the flexible ears. "You could learn him anything." It seemed so, for
after trying to solve the problem of the roller and bit with his tongue
when it was put into his mouth, he accepted the mystery with quiet,
intelligent trust; and as soon as he was freed from it, almost courted
further fondling. He would let no one but Jack near him, though. When
we entered the yard the ears went back and the whites of the eyes showed.
"No one but me for a while," Jack said, with a strange ring of ownership
in his voice, telling that it is a good thing to have a horse that is
yours, and yours only.
Within a week "Brownie" was mounted, and ridden down to the House for
final inspection, before "going bush" to learn the art of rounding up
cattle. "He'll let you touch him now," Jack said; and after a snuffing
inquiry at my hands the beautiful creature submitted to their caresses.
Dan looked at him with approving eyes. "To think she had the luck to
choose him too, out of all that crowd," he said.
"We always call it instinct, I think," the Maluka said teasingly,
twitting me on one of my pet theories, and the Dandy politely suggested
"It might be knowledge.'"
Then the Quiet Stockman gave his opinion, making it very clear that he no
longer felt that women had nothing in common with men. "It never is
anything but instinct," he said, with quiet decision in his voice. "No
one ever learns horses."
While the Quiet Stockman had been busy rearranging his ideas of
womankind, a good many things had been going wrong at the homestead. Sam
began by breaking both china cups, and letting the backbone slip out of
everything in his charge.
Fowls laid-out and eggs became luxuries. Cream refused to rise on the
milk. It seemed impossible to keep meat sweet. Jimmy lost interest in the
gathering of firewood and the carrying of water; and as a result, the
waterbutts first shrank, then leaked, and finally lay down, a medley of
planks and iron hoops.
