Cart-horses, though heavy-looking animals, are more sagacious that their
more gracefully formed relatives.
A cart-horse had been driven from a farmyard to the neighbouring brook
early one morning during winter to drink. The water was frozen over,
and the horse stamped away with his fore-feet, but was unable to break
the ice. Finding this, he waited till a companion came down, when the
two, standing side by side, and causing their hoofs to descend together,
broke through the ice, and were thus enabled to obtain the water they
required.
What one person alone cannot do, two working heartily together may
accomplish. We shall find no lack of thick ice to break through. The
thickest, perhaps, is the icy opposition of cold, stubborn hearts to
what is right and good. Let us beware that our hearts do not freeze,
but take care to keep them warm by exercising them in the service of
love and kindness.