I liked
hearing the bells ring, and I liked being hitched under the maple-trees,
with all the neighbors' horses to keep me company. We generally dozed
while the folks were indoors, and woke up brisk and lively, and started
for home in procession.
"But, dear! dear! there came a time when, with five horses on the farm,
not one could be had to give the children a ride or to do a stroke of
work, when master had to foot it to the Corners, and the two steers, Old
Poke and Eyebright, dragged mistress and the children to meeting in the
ox-cart.
"For we were all down with the epizooetic, coughing and sneezing enough
to take our heads off, and so sick and low, some of us, that we couldn't
stand in our stalls, and a man with a red face, Master Fred had over
from Skipton Mills, pouring nasty stuff down our throats, and making us
swallow big black balls of medicine that hurt as they went down--as if
we hadn't enough to suffer before! But our Jenny came to the stable with
a piece of pork-rind, and a bandage she'd made out of her little
red-flannel petticoat, and she wanted Master Fred to put it on my neck;
for, says she: 'That's what ma put on me when I had the sore
throat,'--the blessed child!
"Well, we all pulled through except Filly's colt.
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