HOW MAN BREAKS THE SPIRIT AND THE BODY
THE summer days dragged along hot and enervating. Mosquitoes and
nose-flies in countless numbers became more and more annoying as the
sultry period prevailed. It made grazing during most of the daytime very
disagreeable. All through these long days they stood dozing in small
bunches, their chins resting upon each other’s backs, their tails
switching mechanically. When a momentary gust of wind came along, they
would run down to the sloughs for water. There they would drink till the
stinging of the pests, who were always in greater numbers above the
tall, wet, slough grass, would make the place unendurable, then they
would gallop away to the hill tops for relief.
Beautifully tolerant of all things, always moved by the spirit of “live
and let live,” Queen could not understand men and insects. She could
easily see why one horse might kick at another when the other came along
and greedily seized upon his find of grass; but the desire to attack
without reason or excuse, as it seemed to be in the character of men and
insects, was unfathomable and wholly foreign to her nature. Whenever men
appeared there was fear and confusion and anguish. So, too, as soon as
insects arrived, there was pain and discomfort.
Had she been a meat eater, she would have perceived some connection
between the joy of eating and the tragedy of being eaten; but Queen
belonged to the sweetest-tempered race on earth, whose sustenance
required neither pain nor blood, and so she could not understand, and
being unable to understand, she feared.
There followed a period of windstorms which carried the pests away. For
a long time the herd enjoyed once more the freedom of the wilds; but
another hot spell came and one day as they were eagerly seeking the
higher places, they ran into a cloud of a new kind of insect, which was
worse than anything they had ever experienced. This new pest settled
upon them in such numbers that they changed the appearance of their
heads and when in fear they tried to shake them off, the insects crept
into their ears and noses, stinging viciously.
It was now the last part of the summer, the time of the year when young
ants, having acquired their wings, began swarming; and this was one of
the summers when these ants were more annoying than they usually are.
Queen did not remember ever having come upon this pest before, and felt
that it was peculiar to the particular neighbourhood in which they
happened to be at the time. Accordingly, when first attacked by an
unusually large swarm, she turned to the south, and the herd loped at
her heels. By running, they rid themselves of the young ants and so
continued running, till the cool of the evening cleared the air of all
insects.
Next day, however, they ran into another swarm and again took to flight.
Thus they were driven back again into the vicinity of the bowl-like
valley. There because things seemed familiar they remained.
A season of constant raining followed. The cold, the excessive wetness,
and the strong winds drove all pests from the plains. The rainy season
passed and frosts came night after night, spreading layers of white dew
on the grass and freezing the surface of the spring lake. The
exhilarating days of autumn were at hand, cool, clear, and sunny. The
peaceful nights scintillated with the colours of the aurora borealis and
the unhindered brightness of the stars. Life became again a protracted
festival.
They were startled one afternoon by the sudden appearance of four
strange horses who came plodding along in single file from the south.
Queen discovered them first as they were coming down the slope of a
hill. Like the rest of the herd she stopped grazing and stared at them
curiously. Because she saw no men on them or near them and because they
came so wearily, so unenergetically, she was not afraid of them, though
she regarded them with suspicion.
When they came within a few hundred feet, the herd moved off to the
side, from where they studied them curiously to learn their intentions.
But the strangers did not even look toward them. Doggedly bobbing their
weary heads, they made straight for the lake. The leader was a big, red
horse with an ugly pugnacious face, the nose bone of which curved, very
peculiarly, outward. His hip bones protruded out of deep hollows in his
back and his sides, fallen in, revealed distinctly every hair covered
rib. Behind him lumbered a white mare so bent upon limping fast enough
to keep up with him that she did not take her eyes off him. The third
was a miserable-looking bay pony and the last was an old jade, black as
a crow. All were thin and bedraggled and two of them had sores on their
necks and breasts. The white mare seemed to have suffered most, for one
of her hind legs was swollen to twice its normal size, and she limped
very painfully.
When the queer-looking procession caught sight of the lake, they broke
the line and ran down to the water, where they drank as if they had been
without water for many days. While they were drinking the herd
surrounded them, intending peacefully to sniff noses with them and to
find out who and what manner of horses they were; but the ugly leader
met the first approach with a kick and an angry whinny. They soon
discovered that though the other three horses were not as mean, they,
too, were ill-tempered and disagreeable. The first attempt at
understanding resulted in a noisy quarrel and a stampede. When they
settled down to grazing, the herd was off by itself and the four
strangers were in a corner of the valley not any too near each other.
Queen did not like these strangers at all. She felt that they were
responsible for the unpleasant feeling that now seemed to hang in the
very atmosphere. She did not know then that slavery and cruelty such as
these poor creatures had endured would sour the best-tempered horse.
What that slavery really meant she had yet to learn.
In spite of her feelings toward the four newcomers, there was something
about the white mare that made Queen interested in her. She kept raising
her head and looking toward her and one time as she did so, she saw
White-black approaching her. When Queen saw them sniffing noses and
touching each other eagerly, she trotted over to them. This time instead
of limping away at her approach, the white mare waited for her. She
seemed glad to touch noses with Queen; but Queen felt uncomfortable. The
old kindly spirit that had made the white mare so lovable had given way
to a disagreeable impatience and suspicion; and her presence set two
emotions struggling with each other in Queen’s heart. The subtle odour
that made Queen think of some of those distant, weary, winter nights
when she lay close against her old foster mother, drew her emotionally
to the old mare; while the odour of man and barn repelled her. Over
these emotions like a black cloud in the sky, hovered a new-born fear as
if she had discerned in the poor mare’s condition the warning: “Beware
of man for thus he breaks the spirit and the body.”
At dusk Queen led the herd in a race over the plains. The poor white
mare who now clung to Queen and to White-black tried to follow; but she
did not go very far before in her eagerness she tripped and fell. Queen
and White-back went back to her and grazed about her. They began to feel
that there was something terrible going to happen to her and they
watched her curiously.
That night all three of them lay near each other. White-black and Queen
were fast asleep in the latter part of the cold night, when they were
awakened by a cry from the white mare. Queen jumped up in time to get
out of the black old jade’s way. The night was cold and he was very
thin-blooded. Unable to keep warm he had gone in search of a warmer
place and in his clumsy way had stepped upon the white mare’s swollen
leg. White-black nipped him on the back and with a cry of protest he
lumbered away into the darkness. When Queen went back to sleep she was
very much disturbed by the white mare’s groaning. Several times she woke
up and whinnied to her, but the groaning continued at intervals all
through the night.
Next day Queen noticed that blood was running from her swollen leg, and
by nightfall the white mare was nowhere to be seen. Queen looked for her
for a while and she saw that White-black too was anxious about her, but
they did not find her that day nor the next, though they searched for
her constantly as they went about their grazing.
The dull days of early winter came back, grey and silent and ominous.
Geese flew over them daily on their way to the south and their honking
filled Queen with an ineffable sadness. Suddenly one day as she was
grazing by herself she came upon the body of the white mare. She touched
the cold, hard nose with her own and sprang away frightened. She did not
try to sniff again. Now she knew that this was death and hurried away.
White-black was grazing almost a quarter of a mile away. Queen trotted
over to him and whinnied repeatedly. He answered her, but he did not
know what ailed her. She walked away a short distance and called him.
First he replied while grazing, then at the second call, he raised his
head and walked toward her. But he was no sooner pulling away at some
grass there, when he discovered that she was some distance away again
and calling as hard as ever. For some reason known only to her she was
leading him away to the north again and though he went reluctantly at
first, with the rest of the herd following him, they were soon well on
their way. A few miles from the lake, they stopped, however, for fear
that they might not come upon water. There were in this group no more
than a dozen of them, all colts that had been brought up together, and
they were glad to be by themselves, though as they moved on, the rest of
the horses, miles behind, moved after them. When a snowstorm came and
filled all the hollows, they began once more moving northward in
earnest. Forces they could not understand impelled them. Thus they
abandoned forever the scenes of their youth.
The winter passed like a night of pleasure. Protected on the north by a
strip of woodland many miles long, Queen and her companions slept the
long nights away. The snow, deep in many places, was not very deep near
the wall of poplars and feeding came comparatively easily. On sunny days
they spent as much time chasing each other through the deepest drifts as
they did in pawing for grass. The dry snows made warm blankets and the
howling winds, shrieking in the poplars, provided music for their
enjoyment of life, often sad, but for all its sadness, sweet.
They were big and strong now. Blood flowed rich and freely through their
veins and the hair on their bodies, which was as long as the hair on the
bears that at very rare intervals showed themselves and disappeared,
kept them warm. The elements, no matter how savagely they raged, could
not become disagreeable.
A few weeks of springtime with open plains to lope over and new grass,
and they grew daily stronger and fleeter. Sorrows of the dead past were
forgotten and the joys of the present were so all absorbing that even
man seemed to have become extinct, as far as they were concerned.
To the joy of unlimited space, of surging healthy blood, of plenty to
eat and drink, of peaceful and constant companionship was added the
aesthetic pleasures of love. Having first discovered in themselves
preferences for members of the opposite sex, they began to see traits
and characteristics in their choice which thrilled them.
There were, of course, petty quarrels now and then, since love will not
come unaccompanied by strife, and nature is not always provident, or
when she is provident, so often disorderly. There were some
disappointments and the weak, helpless here as the weak are helpless
everywhere, often had to give way to the strong; but the tragedy that
follows love among ferocious and greedy animals never marred their
happier relations; and even the weaker ones found love requited. Life on
the rim of love was so rich, Nature beyond love was so lavish, hurts
healed before the wounds reached the flesh.
But to Queen and White-black life was a game in which even tiredness had
its delight. Strong and healthy and beautiful, admired by the rest and
followed in their every whim, they played through the uninterrupted
carnival of laughing spring and smiling, drowsy summer. When winter came
again, they met it without fear, willing to wade through deep snows,
accepting the violent lashes of wind and blizzard, warming their hearts
in the expectant joy of another spring and another summer, looking upon
life, in their innocence, as an endlessly interesting cycle in which
winter was the greatest discomfort and spring its eternal retribution.
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