Up! Horsie!

Up! Horsie!, by Clara de
Chatelaine

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Title: Up! Horsie! An Original Fairy Tale
Author: Clara de Chatelaine
Release Date: November 15, 2007 [EBook #23477]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
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HORSIE! ***

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LILLIPUTIAN LIBRARY.

NEW SERIES.
UP! HORSIE!
AN
Original Fairy Tale.
BY
MADAME DE CHATELAIN.
JOSEPH, MYERS, & CO., 144, LEADENHALL STREET, LONDON,
E.C.
* * * * *

THE
LILLIPUTIAN LIBRARY.
UP! HORSIE!
A young peasant was riding to market on a stout, well-fed nag, when he
overtook an old Scotch shepherd, who was trudging along on foot.
"I say, Sandy," cried the young man, "if you go no faster than that,
market will be over before you get to town."
The Scotchman turned round, and peered at him from under his bushy
eyebrows, saying in a strong north country accent: "Gin ye think so,
suppose we ride and tie?"
"A pretty story indeed!" quoth Gilbert--"I keep a horse for myself, and
not for you."
And as he uttered this ungracious answer, he urged on his nag, and
soon left the old Scotchman in the lurch.

Scarcely had Gilbert reached the market town, and put up his horse at
an inn, when who should he behold strolling leisurely amongst the
market folks, but the same old shepherd he had left so far behind.
"Somebody must have given you a lift, Sandy," observed he.
"Oh," replied the shepherd, "when I asked for a lift, it was only to see if
you were obliging or not--it was all the same to me--for though you
must buy your horses, I can gather mine whenever I choose."
These words sounded so odd to Gilbert that he begged the stranger to
explain his meaning, when the old man said: "Meet me at yon inn, and
we'll see."
Gilbert then hurried through his business, and went to join the shepherd
at the inn. But the wary Scotchman would not give his secret for
nothing--and why should he, to a stranger who had been uncivil to him?
Besides, as he observed truly enough, those who are curious may pay
for their curiosity, so if Gilbert wanted to know how to gather horses
thus easily, he must hand him over all the money he had received that
morning, and give him his nag into the bargain. Gilbert thought these
demands exorbitant, and tried to haggle with the stranger, but Sandy
proved too much for him, Northumbrian though he was--and the young
farmer finished by agreeing to his conditions, and after paying down
the money, brought the horse out of the stable.
"Now I'll tell you," said the Scotchman. "May be you've heard of our
late poet Burns, just over the border? Well, he told of a shepherd lad
who years and years ago learnt of some wise ones, that if you pull a
stem of ragwort, and sit astride it, and cry out: 'Up! Horsie!' it will carry
you through the air."
"And have you tried it and succeeded?" eagerly inquired Gilbert.
"Ay--for that shepherd lad was myself, and many a pleasant jaunt have
I enjoyed by that same means," said Sandy, with twinkling eyes. "Only
you must not attempt it till the moon is full, or the horse might throw an
inexperienced rider."

Delighted at having learnt such a secret, and without pausing to wonder
how, if the shepherd had lived so many years before Burns, he could
still be alive, Gilbert inquired what places he went to?
"I went to Elf-land," said the Scotchman.
Gilbert was not learned--indeed he could scarcely read--and he
confessed he did not know the road thither; but the stranger assured
him he need only express the wish to go, and the ragwort would take
him. They then parted, and the shepherd rode away with the horse, after
stowing away the money in his pouch, while Gilbert went home as best
he might.
After waiting impatiently for the full moon, Gilbert at last went out one
night to work the charm, and to his great delight, had no sooner
bestrided the ragwort, and said: "Up! Horsie!" than it bore him at a
pretty smart pace to Elf-land. Nevertheless it just began to dawn as he
reached his journey's end, and dismounted. He had