I do not remember now just how it was that we came by the different
“animals of the horse kind,” as my father humorously called them, which
we housed in an old log-stable not far from our cabin. They must have
been a temporary supply until a team worthy our new sky-blue wagon could
be found.
One of them was a colossal sorrel, inexorably hide-bound, whose barrel,
as I believe the horsemen call the body, showed every hoop upon it. He
had a feeble, foolish whimper of a voice, and we nicknamed him “Baby.”
His companion was a dun mare, who had what my father at once called an
italic foot, in recognition of the emphatic slant at which she carried
it when upon her unwilling travels.
Then there was a small, self-opinionated gray pony, which, I think, came
from one of the saw-mill hands, and which was of no service
conjecturable after this lapse of time. We boys rode him barebacked, and
he used to draw a buggy, which he finally ran away with. I suppose we
found him useful in the representation of some of the Indian fights
which we were always dramatizing, and I dare say he may have served our
turn as an Arab charger, when the Moors of Granada made one of their
sallies upon the camp of the Spaniards, and discharged their javelins
into it--their javelins were the long, admirably straight and slender
iron-weeds that grew by the river. This menagerie was constantly
breaking bounds and wandering off; and I believe that it was chiefly
employed in hunting itself up, its different members taking turns in
remaining in the pasture or stable, to be ridden after those that had
strayed into the woods.
The origin of a large and eloquent flock of geese is lost in an equal
obscurity. I recall their possession simply as an accomplished fact, and
I associate their desolate cries with the windy dark of rainy November
nights, so that they must at least have come into our hands after the
horses. They were fenced into a clayey area next the cabin for
safe-keeping, where, perpetually waddling about in a majestic
disoccupation, they patted the damp ground down to the hardness and
smoothness of a brick yard. Throughout the day they conversed tranquilly
together, but by night they woke, goose after goose, to send forth a
long clarion alarum, blending in a general concert at last, to assure
one another of their safety.
We must have intended to pluck them in the spring, but it never came to
that. They stole their nests early in March, and entered upon the
nurture of their young before we could prevent it; and it would then
have been barbarous to pluck these mothers of families. Some of their
nests we found, notably one under the smoke-house, where the adventurous
boy who discovered it was attacked in the dark by its owner and bitten
in the nose, to the natural gratification of those who had urged him to
the enterprise. But he brought away some of the eggs, and we had them
fried, and I know nothing that conveys a vivider idea of inexhaustible
abundance than a fried goose-egg.