A MAN AND HIS MARE.

King Country Chronicle, Volume I, Issue 23, 29 March 1907, Page 3

A MAN AND HIS MARE.

[BY " W.B."]

The mare was all right, and so was her owner, until he thought he would mount her where many men compared dog lies. Suddenly they were mute, and this was the reason : —The mare was tall, and the stirrup irons unwiped since last lavish anointments of grease ; and when the rider gripped the reins and mane with one hand, and whip and crupper strap in the other, and for no observable reason, sat down on the road in several inches of road filth, the mare thought the journey was ended, and gratefully skipped for her paddock, and, 'as she passed, several dogs and bystanders ' set up a cheer, which she tried to earn honestly, by skipping the faster. But the gate was closed, and while he came, according to custom, to open it, she pensively scratched her chin on a barb point. But when he judged that the mishap lay in the shortness of bridle rein, and in various short, sharp jerks began to lengthen it, and at the same time ask silly questions: What she meant by it, she snatched the reins out of his hands and hastened away ; and in fleeing stepped on them, and left them where her master could find them. Then horse instincts prevailed over pain at a spot where a fine bunch of grass was awaiting her pleasure, and, being no bearer of malice, sickled off large monthfuls with conspicuons enjoyment until her master arrived. But when he grabbed at the snaffle ring with uncalledfor violence, and smote her on the head with his whip, she displayed an open mind on the necessity of further waiting, and after the first cut, breached for freedom and distance; and, thinking the saddle a useless encumbrance, scraped it off with a tree branch" under which her road lay. Thereafter began a series of happenings which enchanted the onlookers ; for the mare retaining some grass blades unmilled during the haste of retreat, took this leisure to mill them, and others, which by an excellent coincidence, grew where she stopped to look what her fool of a master would do with the saddle, and when she saw him engrossed with the broken girth lappets, she forgot caution, and set to gathering in a bountiful grass-harvest with incomparable relish. But before she knew, her master made a second grab for the snaffle-ring ; but he grabbed short; and not this alone made her quite lively—there was a malevolent sheen to his eyes which boded terrible vengeance! So she walked grandly away, one eye on rear measurements, and the other on the road. Also, when her master spoke kindly and walked fast, she walked faster; but when he gained upon her, she tried how he would like a trotting match ; but when he also made good time —running lighter on two legs—she had no further time for him, and cantered. At this she bested him! But she had to do with a creature of enormous brain-mass and infamous craft; and when he apparently gave up the chase she blew her nose and took a leisurely dust-bath ; but when she sat up to arise, 10, there was that übiquitous hand again making excited clutches at her mouth ! Fortunately she saw it in time, and instead of getting up by stages, as usual, she just humped herself out of that in one momentous heave, and left a striken brain behind her to invent fresh blasphemy ! And when he retired, thereupon ostensibly beaten, she could hardly credit her vision, and actually followed him to the manuka clump through which they had come; and after listening awhile, searched for sweet grasses ■ and had it not been for the snaffle in her mouth, she would have been the happiest mare in Te Kuiti. In about half-an-hour she almost forgotten he persecuter, when 10, there he stood again, only now in the opposite direction! Coming absently towards her, and now wise in her head, she kept a rigid ten paces ahead of him and walked into the manuka path. Strange that he followed as contentedly behind her! Suddenly something tense clings round her neck ! Can it be a rope ? Her heart misgives her; she breaks into a trot, and just as freedom looms in front of her, the noose closes, and with a spine creaking wrench, she sits on her haunches in disgraceful surrender ! No, my pet: That there be treacherous snares cunningly set to poke your beautiful head through, were not taught at your seminary! But nothing will induce her now to pass through manuka clumps without flickering ears, and trepidant caution.