With Lee in Virginia | Page 8

and then taking its rein led it down into
the inclosure.
"No, I don't want the whip," he said, as Jake offered him one. "I have
got the spurs, and likely enough the horse's temper may have been
spoiled by knocking it about with a whip; but we will try what kindness
will do with it first."
"Me no like his look, Massa Vincent; he debbil ob a hoss dat."
"I don't think he has a nice temper, Jake; but people learn to control
their temper, and I don't see why horses shouldn't. At any rate we will

have a try at it. He looks as if he appreciates being patted and spoken to
already. Of course if you treat a horse like a savage he will become
savage. Now, stand out of the way."
Gathering the reins together, and placing one hand upon the pommel,
Vincent sprang into the saddle without touching the stirrups; then he sat
for a minute or two patting the horse's neck. Wildfire, apparently
disgusted at having allowed himself to be mounted so suddenly, lashed
out viciously two or three times, and then refused to move. For half an
hour Vincent tried the effect of patient coaxing, but in vain.
"Well, if you won't do it by fair means you must by foul," Vincent said
at last, and sharply pricked him with his spurs.
Wildfire sprang into the air, and then began a desperate series of efforts
to rid himself of his rider, rearing and kicking in such quick succession
that he seemed half the time in the air. Finding after awhile that his
efforts were unavailing, he subsided at last into sulky immovability.
Again Vincent tried coaxing and patting, but as no success attended
these efforts, he again applied the spur sharply. This time the horse
responded by springing forward like an arrow from a bow, dashed at
the top of his speed across the inclosure, cleared the high fence without
an effort, and then set off across the country.
He had attempted to take the bit in his teeth, but with a sharp jerk as he
drove the spurs in, Vincent had defeated his intention. He now did not
attempt to check or guide him, but keeping a light hand on the reins let
him go his own course. Vincent knew that so long as the horse was
going full speed it could attempt no trick to unseat him, and he
therefore sat easily in his saddle.
For six miles Wildfire continued his course, clearing every obstacle
without abatement to his speed, and delighting his rider with his power
and jumping qualities. Occasionally, only when the course he was
taking would have led him to obstacles impossible for the best jumper
to surmount, Vincent attempted to put the slightest pressure upon one
rein or the other, so as to direct it to an easier point.

At the end of six miles the horse's speed began slightly to abate, and
Vincent, abstaining from the use of his spurs, pressed it with his knees
and spoke to it cheerfully urging it forward. He now from time to time
bent forward and patted it, and for another six miles kept it going at a
speed almost as great as that at which it had started Then he allowed it
gradually to slacken its pace, until at last first the gallop and then the
trot ceased, and it broke into a walk.
"You have had a fine gallop, old fellow," Vincent said, patting it; "and
so have I. There's been nothing for you to lose your temper about, and
the next road we come upon we will turn our face homeward. Half a
dozen lessons like this, and then no doubt we shall be good friends."
The journey home was performed at a walk, Vincent talking the greater
part of the time to the horse. It took a good deal more than six lessons
before Wildfire would start without a preliminary struggle with his
master, but in the end kindness and patience conquered. Vincent often
visited the horse in the stables, and, taking with him an apple or some
pieces of sugar, spent some time there talking to and petting it. He
never carried a whip, and never used the spurs except in forcing it to
make its first start.
Had the horse been naturally ill-tempered Vincent would probably have
failed, but, as he happened afterward to learn, its first owner had been a
hot-tempered and passionate young planter, who, instead of being
patient with it, had beat it about the head, and so rendered it restive and
bad-tempered. Had Vincent not laid aside his whip before mounting it
for the first time, he probably would never have effected a cure. It was
the fact that the animal had