Transcriber’s Note:
The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
SALLY.
HORSE TALES
| LONDON: | NEW YORK: |
| Ernest Nister. | E. P. Dutton & Co. |
SALLY.
If you take a short-horned cow, alimping calf, a few sheep, a swarmof fowls, a pig with a litter of eight,and an everyday lazy kind of horse,you have John Dobbin’s well-stockedfarm.
One morning John woke up at five,bustled round the hen coop, gave anextra feed to the pigs, milked the cow,fed the limping calf, and then wentinto the stables.
“Now, Sally, old girl,” he said,making some fuss as he fed his oldmare, “just keep your eye on things6a bit. I’m goin’ round to FarmerPeckett. He’s in bed, bad with rheumatism,an’ I shan’t be back aforedinner.” So saying he took the halterfrom Sally’s neck, and let her roamabout at will.
Sally left to herself felt glumpy.
“Now where’s the master gone offthis morning,” thought she. “FarmerPeckett. I know no Farmer Peckett.It’s very queer his leaving us all alone.Something might go wrong while he’saway, and he can see to things a lotbetter than me. Just look! There’sthat calf a limping among the lettuces.And that knock-kneed hen with herchirrupy brood scratching the carrots upas if she was seeking to-morrow. I dobelieve those bees mean to swarm, and nomaster here. I’ve watched him swarm ’emmany a time, but I couldn’t manage it.”
Hen with her Chirrupy Brood.
8“If you’re not off about your business,you old gimmer,” as a long-noseds