action so free and motion so graceful, amid that storm of bullets, my heart involuntarily went out

4. As she came careering toward me, her nostrils. widely spread, her flank and shoulders flecked with

foam, her eye dilating, I forgot my wound and all the wild roar of battle, and, lifting myself to a sitting posture, gave her a ringing cheer.

5. No sooner had my voice sounded than she flung her head with a proud upward movement into the air, swerved sharply to the left, neighed as she might to a master at morning from her stall, and came trotting directly up to where I lay. I spoke again, and stretched out my hand caressingly. She pricked up her ears, took a step forward, and lowered her nose until it came in contact with my palm. Never did I fondle anything more tenderly, never did I see an animal which seemed to so court and appreciate human tenderness as that beautiful mare.

6. In color she was a dark chestnut, with a velvety depth and soft look about the hair, indescribably rich and elegant. Her mane was a shade darker than her coat, fine and thin; her ear was thin, sharply pointed, delicately curved, nearly black around the borders, and as tremulous as the leaves of an aspen.

7. All that afternoon the beautiful mare stood over me, while, away to the right of us, the hoarse tide of battle flowed and ebbed. When some of my men, at dusk, came searching and found me, and, laying me on a stretcher, started toward our lines, the mare, of her own free will, followed at my side; and all through that stormy night of wind

and rain, as my men struggled along, through mud and mire, toward Harrison's Landing, the mare followed; and ever after, until she died, was with me and was mine, and I, as far as man might be, was hers. I named her Gulnare.

8. As quickly as my wound permitted, I was transported to Washington, whither I took the mare. Her fondness for me grew daily, and soon became so marked as to cause universal comment. The groom had instructions to lead her twice every day to the hospital window, against which was my bed, so that, by opening the sash, I might reach out my hand and pet her. her. But the second day, no sooner had she reached the street than she broke suddenly from the groom and dashed away at full speed. I was lying, bolstered up in bed, reading, when I heard the rush of flying feet, and in an instant, with a loud, joyful neigh, she checked herself in front of my window.

9. When the nurse lifted the sash, the beautiful creature thrust her head through the aperture, and rubbed her nose against my shoulder, like a dog. Her affection for me seemed almost human; and my heart went out to her beyond any power of expression.

1. Obliquely, caressingly, subjugate, unmannerly, unmanageable, vaulting, involuntarily, whirlwind, dilating, swerved,

177

appreciate, indescribably, tremulous, transported, bolstered, aperture.

2. When was the battle of Malvern Hill? Who commanded the forces engaged? Will most animals love you if treated kindly? Why are wild animals afraid of man? Where is Harrison's Landing?

XLI. A RIDERLESS WAR HORSE.

PART II.

1. The groom, who had divined where he should find her, came into the yard shortly after, but she would not allow him to come near her, much less touch her. If he tried to approach, she would lash out at him most spitefully, and then, laying back her ears and opening her mouth savagely, make a short dash at him, and, as the terrified African disappeared around the corner of the hospital, she would wheel and, with a face bright as a happy child's, come trotting to the window for me to pet her. I shouted to the groom to go back to the stable; for I had no doubt that she would return to her stall when I closed the window.

2. Rejoiced at the permission he departed. After some thirty minutes-the last ten of which she was standing with her slim, delicate head in my lap, while I braided her foretop and combed out her silken mane-I lifted her head and, patting her softly on either cheek, told her that she must

go.

I gently pushed her head out of the window, and closed it; and then, holding up my hand with the palm turned toward her, charged her, making the appropriate motion, to "go right back to her stable." For a moment she stood looking steadily at me, with an indescribable expression of hesita tion and surprise in her clear liquid eyes, and then, turning lingeringly, walked slowly out of the yard.

3. Twice a day, for nearly a month, while I lay in the hospital, did Gulnare visit me. At the appointed hour, the groom would slip her headstall, and, without a word of command, she would dart out of the stable, and, with her long, leopard-like lope, go sweeping down the street, and come dashing into the hospital yard, checking herself, with