Well, there was nothing to be done but to give up our drive; for we
couldn't bear to ride after a lame horse!"
"I can't either!" Mollie interjected.
"Well, he had been lately shod, and our coachman thought that perhaps a
nail from one of the shoes pricked his foot, so he started to take him
to the blacksmith's. But don't you think, as soon as Ned knew that
William was driving, he started off at a brisk trot and wasn't the least
bit lame I but the next time mamma took him out, he began to limp
directly, and kept looking round as much as to say: 'How can you be so
cruel as to make me go, when you must see every step I take hurts me?'
But when mamma came home with him again, William said: 'It's chatin' you
he is, marm.'"
"And what did your mother do?"
"Well, as soon as she made up her mind that he was shamming, she took no
notice of his little trick, but touched him up with the whip, and made
him go right along. He knew directly that she had found him out. Oh, he
is _such_ a knowing horse! The other day Alice was leading him through
the big gate, to give him a mouthful of grass in the door-yard. Alice
likes to lead him about. When he stepped on her gown, and she held it up
to him all torn, and scolded him, she said: 'O Ned! aren't you ashamed
of yourself? how could you be so clumsy and awkward?' and she said he
dropped his head and looked so sorry and ashamed, as if he wanted to
say: 'Oh, I beg pardon! I didn't mean to do it,' that she really pitied
him, and answered as if he had spoken: 'Well, don't worry, Ned; it's of
no consequence,' Ned is such a pet.
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