After driving the herd down to the river, near which the horses were
to graze, Nester dismounted and took off the saddle. Meantime the herd
began slowly to scatter over the as yet untrodden field, covered with
dew and with vapor rising alike from the damp meadow and the river that
encircled it.
Taking off the blanket from the piebald gelding, Nester scratched
him on his neck; and the horse in reply expressed his happiness and
satisfaction by shutting his eyes.
"The old dog likes it," said Nester.
The gelding really did not like this scratching very much, and only
out of delicacy intimated that it was agreeable to him. He shook his
head as a sign of assent. But suddenly, unexpectedly, and without any
reason, Nester, imagining perhaps that too great familiarity might
give the horse false ideas about what he meant,--Nester, without any
warning, pushed away his head, and, lifting up the bridle, struck the
horse very severely with the buckle on his bare leg, and, without
saying any thing, went up the hillock to a stump, near which he sat
down as though nothing had happened.
Though this proceeding incensed the gelding, he did not manifest it;
and leisurely switching his thin tail, and sniffing at something, and
merely for recreation cropping at the grass, he wandered down toward
the river.
Not paying any heed to the antics played around him by the young
fillies, the colts, and the yearlings, and knowing that the health of
everybody, and especially one who had attained his years, was subserved
by getting a good drink of water on an empty stomach, and then eating,
he turned his steps to where the bank was less steep and slippery; and
wetting his hoofs and gambrels, he thrust his snout into the river,
and began to suck the water through his lips drawn back, to puff with
his distending sides, and out of pure satisfaction to switch his thin,
piebald tail with its leathery stump.
A chestnut filly, always mischievous, always nagging the old horse, and
causing him manifold unpleasantnesses, came down to the water as though
for her own necessities, but really merely for the sake of roiling the
water in front of his nose.
But the gelding had already drunk enough, and apparently giving no
thought to the impudent mare, calmly put one miry leg before the other,
shook his head, and, turning aside from the wanton youngster, began
to eat. Dragging his legs in a peculiar manner, and not tramping down
the abundant grass, the horse grazed for nearly three hours, scarcely
stirring from the spot. Having eaten so much that his belly hung down
like a bag from his thin, sharp ribs, he stood solidly on his four weak
legs, so that as little strain as possible might come on any one of
them,--at least on the right foreleg, which was weaker than all,--and
went to sleep.
There is an honorable old age, there is a miserable old age, there is a
pitiable old age; there is also an old age that is both honorable and
miserable. The old age which the piebald gelding had reached was of
this latter sort.
The old horse was of a great size,--more than seventeen hands high.[4]
His color was white, spotted with black; at least, it used to be so,
but now the black spots had changed to a dirty brown. The regions of
black spots were three in number: one on the head, including the mane,
and side of the nose, the star on the forehead, and half of the neck;
the long mane, tangled with burrs, was striped white and brownish; the
second spotted place ran along the right side, and covered half the
belly; the third was on the flank, including the upper part of the tail
and half of the loins; the rest of the tail was whitish, variegated.
The huge, corrugated head, with deep hollows under the eyes, and with
pendent black lips, somewhat lacerated, sat heavily and draggingly
on the neck, which bent under its leanness, and seemed to be made of
wood. From under the pendent lip could be seen the dark-red tongue
protruding on one side, and the yellow, worn tusks of his lower
teeth. His ears, one of which was slit, fell over sidewise, and only
occasionally he twitched them a little to scare away the sticky flies.
One long tuft still remaining of the forelock hung behind the ears;
the broad forehead was hollowed and rough; the skin hung loose on the
big cheek-bones. On the neck and head the veins stood out in knots,
trembling and twitching whenever a fly touched them. The expression of
his face was sternly patient, deeply thoughtful, and expressive of pain.
His forelegs were crooked at the knees. On both hoofs were swellings;
and on the one which was half covered by the marking, there was
near the knee at the back a sore boil. The hind legs were in better
condition, but there had been severe bruises long before on the
haunches, and the hair did not grow on those places. His legs seemed
disproportionately long, because his body was so emaciated. His ribs,
though also thick, were so exposed and drawn that the hide seemed dried
in the hollows between them.
The back and withers were variated with old scars, and behind was still
a freshly galled and purulent slough. The black stump of the tail,
where the vertebræ could be counted, stood out long and almost bare. On
the brown flank near the tail, where it was overgrown with white hairs,
was a scar as big as one's hand, that must have been from a bite.
Another cicatrice was to be seen on the off shoulder. The houghs of the
hind legs and the tail were foul with excrement. The hair all over the
body, though short, stood out straight.
But in spite of the filthy old age to which this horse had come,
any one looking at him would have involuntarily thought, and a
_connoisseur_ would have said immediately, that he must have been in
his day a remarkably fine horse. The _connoisseur_ would have said also
that there was only one breed in Russia[5] that could give such broad
bones, such huge joints, such hoofs, such slender leg-bones, such an
arched neck, and, most of all, such a skull,--eyes large, black, and
brilliant, and such a thoroughbred network of nerves over his head and
neck, and such delicate skin and hair.
In reality there was something noble in the form of this horse, and
in the terrible union in him of the repulsive signs of decrepitude,
the increased variegatedness of his hide, and his actions, and the
expression of self-dependence, and the calm consciousness of beauty
and strength.
Like a living ruin he stood in the middle of the dewy field, alone;
while not far away from him were heard the galloping, the neighing, the
lively whinnying, the snorting, of the scattered herd.
[Footnote 4: Two _arshin,_ three _vershoks,_= 6.65 feet.]