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Show An Educated Horse "You ask if we have any particularly bright horses," replied a hook and ladder man. "Here is Peter; he's been with us nine or ten years, and we rather brag on him. Let me introduce you. Peter, here is a chap from the Detroit Free Press." Peter nodded his head and pawed the floor. "Peter, have you been to the fire? today?" He shook his head. "were you out yesterday?" He nodded. "Peter, how old are you?" The horse pawed thirteen times with his right foot. "That's right, old boy. Do you remember when a loafer stabbed you at the fire?" He Did. "Were is the scar?" Peter bent himself almost double to bite his hip at a spot where a scar could be traced. "Now Peter, show the Detroit man how you take your place at the pole." Down went the chain and the horse covered the distance at two jumps. "Now walk around the track, and come and take my hat off." The horse obeyed to the letter. "Now," continued the man, as he lay down on the floor, "step over me." Peter lifted up his feet very high and stepped softly over, and returned to his stall. "That horse is one of us," said the man, as he brushed off the dust and sat down. "We can rest the foot of a ladder on his back and he will not move. Wherever we stand him at a fire there he will stay without watching. He eats with us, chews tobacco, likes beer and would learn to play dominoes in a week if he could only handle them." |