Black Beauty quotes

I had never heard that before; and so poor Rob Roy who was killed at that hunt was my brother! I did not wonder that my mother was so troubled.

It seems that horses have no relations; at least they never know each other after they are sold.

John seemed very proud of me; he used to make my mane and tail almost as smooth as a lady’s hair, and he would talk to me a great deal;

all who had to do with me were good and I had a light airy stable and the best of food.

What more could I want? Why, liberty!

For three years and a half of my life I had had all the liberty I could wish for;

I had the best of it, for I always carried the mistress; her weight was little, her voice was sweet, and her hand was so light on the rein that I was guided almost without feeling it.

Oh! if people knew what a comfort to horses a light hand is, and how it keeps a good mouth and a good temper, they surely would not chuck, and drag, and pull at the rein as they often do.

Our mouths are so tender that where they have not been spoiled or hardened with bad or ignorant treatment, they feel the slightest movement of the driver’s hand, and we know in an instant what is required of us.

I never forgot it. They healed in time, and they forgot the pain, but the nice soft flap, that of course was intended to protect the delicate part of their ears from dust and injury, was gone forever.

Why don’t they cut their own children’s ears into points to make them look sharp? Why don’t they cut the end off their noses to make them look plucky?

One would be just as sensible as the other. What right have they to torment and disfigure God’s creatures?”

and sometimes, if mistress met a heavily laden horse with his head strained up she would stop the carriage and get out, and reason with the driver in her sweet serious voice, and try to show him how foolish and cruel it was.

I don’t think any man could withstand our mistress. I wish all ladies were like her.

Our master, too, used to come down very heavy sometimes.

“So do I,” said master, “as well as any man, but

I don’t like to see them held up; that takes all the shine out of it.

Now, you are a military man, Langley, and no doubt like to see your regiment look well on parade, ‘heads up’, and all that; but you would not take much credit for your drill if all your men had their heads tied to a backboard!

or else squares about at you with his heels. Poor things! I know what sort of treatment they have had.

If they are timid it makes them start or shy; if they are high-mettled it makes them vicious or dangerous; their tempers are mostly made when they are young.

Bless you! they are like children, train ’em up in the way they should go, as the good book says, and when they are old they will not depart from it, if they have a chance.”

No chance for a horse to see where he is going. Now, I am for bold riding as much as any man, but still there are some leaps that only a very knowing old huntsman has any right to take.

A man’s life and a horse’s life are worth more than a fox’s tail; at least, I should say they ought to be.

”

“

Only ignorance! only ignorance! how can you talk about only ignorance? Don’t you know that it is the worst thing in the world, next to wickedness?

—and which does the most mischief heaven only knows. If people can say, ‘Oh! I did not know, I did not mean any harm,’ they think it is all right.

“Right, Joe! you did right, my boy, whether the fellow gets a summons or not. Many folks would have ridden by and said it was not their business to interfere.

Now I say that with cruelty and oppression it is everybody’s business to interfere when they see it; you did right, my boy.

”

The doctor was often at the house, and the master looked grave and anxious. Then we heard that she must leave her home at once, and go to a warm country for two or three years.

The news fell upon the household like the tolling of a deathbell.

Everybody was sorry; but the master began directly to make arrangements for breaking up his establishment and leaving England. We used to hear it talked about in our stable; indeed, nothing else was talked about.

Besides this, there was a pressure on my windpipe, which often made my breathing very uncomfortable; when I returned from my work my neck and chest were strained and painful, my mouth and tongue tender, and I felt worn and depressed.

In my old home I always knew that John and my master were my friends; but here, although in many ways I was well treated, I had no friend.

York might have known, and very likely did know, how that rein harassed me; but I suppose he took it as a matter of course that it could not be helped; at any rate, nothing was done to relieve me.

it is just because my legs are so short. I stand nearly as high as you, but your legs are a good three inches longer above your knee than mine, and of course you can take a much longer step and go much faster.

You see I did not make myself. I wish I could have done so; I would have had long legs then.

All my troubles come from my short legs,” said Peggy, in a desponding tone.

So I suppose all men don’t do so. I am sure I don’t want to shy for the sake of it; but how should one know what is dangerous and what is not, if one is never allowed to get used to anything?

I am never afraid of what I know.

Now I was brought up in a park where there were deer;

I shied and started forward. My master as usual whipped me smartly, but the old man cried out, ‘You’re wrong! you’re wrong!

You should never whip a horse for shying; he shies because he is frightened, and you only frighten him more and make the habit worse.

’ So I suppose all men don’t do so. I am sure I don’t want to shy for the sake of it; but how should one know what is dangerous and what is not, if one is never allowed to get used to anything?

but there are mean scoundrels, wicked enough to rob a dumb beast of his food. You must look into it.” And turning to his man, who had come to take me, “Give this horse a right good feed of bruised oats, and don’t stint him.”

“Dumb beasts!” Yes, we are; but if I could have spoken I could have told my master where his oats went to.

My groom used to come every morning about six o’clock, and with him a little boy, who always had a covered basket with him.

yes, sir”—touching his hat at every word; and everyone thought he was a very nice young man and that Mr. Barry was very fortunate to meet with him. I should say he was the laziest, most conceited fellow I ever came near.

Of course, it was a great thing not to be ill-used, but then a horse wants more than that.

I had a loose box, and might have been very comfortable if he had not been too indolent to clean it out. He never took all the straw away, and the smell from what lay underneath was very bad;

“Ah!” said he, “

I should think they never saw it. No doubt it is very fine when there is no enemy, when it is just exercise and parade and sham fight.

Yes, it is very fine then; but when thousands of good brave men and horses are killed or crippled for life, it has a very different look.”

“Most likely not,” said Jerry, “but I don’t know that I shall be the less happy for that.

I have heard the commandments read a great many times and I never noticed that any of them said, ‘Thou shalt be rich’

; and there are a good many curious things said in the New Testament about rich men that I think would make me feel rather queer if I was one of them.”

“And you never will,” said the governor. “

Good Luck is rather particular who she rides with, and mostly prefers those who have got common sense and a good heart; at least that is my experience.

”

“I say, Jerry,” says she, speaking very slowly, “I say, if Mrs. Briggs would give you a sovereign every Sunday morning, I would not have you a seven-days’ cabman again.

We have known what it was to have no Sundays, and now we know what it is to call them our own.

Thank God, you earn enough to keep us, though it is sometimes close work to pay for all the oats and hay, the license, and the rent besides;

If some men are shams and humbugs, that does not make religion untrue.

Real religion is the best and truest thing in the world, and the only thing that can make a man really happy or make the world we live in any better.

”

“ ’Tis not for me to lay down plans for other people,” said Jerry, “but if they can’t walk so far they can go to what is nearer; and if it should rain they can put on their mackintoshes as they do on a weekday.

If a thing is right it can be done, and if it is wrong it can be done without; and a good man will find a way.

And that is as true for us cabmen as it is for the churchgoers.”

We came home gently, and Jerry’s first words were, as we came into the yard, “

Well, Polly, I have not lost my Sunday after all, for the birds were singing hymns in every bush, and I joined in the service; and as for Jack, he was like a young colt.

”

“

There, Dolly, that’s a gentleman; that’s a real gentleman, Dolly; he has got time and thought for the comfort of a poor cabman and a little girl.

”

His lips were thin and close shut, though they had a very pleasant smile; his eye was keen, and there was something in his jaw and the motion of his head that made one think he was very determined in anything he set about.

His voice was pleasant and kind; any horse would trust that voice, though it was just as decided as everything else about him.

One day he and another gentleman took our cab; they stopped at a shop in R Street, and while his friend went in he stood at the door.

Our friend stood still for a moment, and throwing his head a little back, “

Do you know why this world is as bad as it is?

”

“Then I’ll tell you.

It is because people think only about their own business, and won’t trouble themselves to stand up for the oppressed, nor bring the wrongdoer to light.

I never see a wicked thing like this without doing what I can, and many a master has thanked me for letting him know how his horses have been used.”

After this we continued our journey, and as they got out of the cab our friend was saying, “

My doctrine is this, that if we see cruelty or wrong that we have the power to stop, and do nothing, we make ourselves sharers in the guilt.

”

“You’ve beaten me, Sam,” he said, “for it’s all true, and I won’t cast it up to you any more about the police; it was the look in that horse’s eye that came over me.

It is hard lines for man and it is hard lines for beast, and who’s to mend it I don’t know, but anyway you might tell the poor beast that you were sorry to take it out of him in that way.

Sometimes a kind word is all we can give ’em, poor brutes, and ’tis wonderful what they do understand.”

It is hard lines for man and it is hard lines for beast, and who’s to mend it I don’t know, but anyway you might tell the poor beast that you were sorry to take it out of him in that way.

Sometimes a kind word is all we can give ’em, poor brutes, and ’tis wonderful what they do understand.

”

I was very much troubled, and I put my nose up to hers, but I could say nothing to comfort her. I think she was pleased to see me, for she said, “

You are the only friend I ever had.

”

but I can’t speak of them, the sight was too dreadful. It was a chestnut horse with a long, thin neck. I saw a white streak down the forehead. I believe it was Ginger; I hoped it was, for then her troubles would be over.

Oh! if men were more merciful they would shoot us before we came to such misery.

But all boys are not cruel. I have seen some as fond of their pony or donkey as if it had been a favorite dog, and the little creatures have worked away as cheerfully and willingly for their young drivers as I work for Jerry.

It may be hard work sometimes, but a friend’s hand and voice make it easy.

There was a young coster-boy who came up our street with greens and potatoes;

but mind, I won’t have any election blackguarding on my premises. There are as many ‘blue’ blackguards as there are ‘orange’, and as many white as there are purple, or any other color, and I won’t have any of my family mixed up with it.

Even women and children are ready to quarrel for the sake of a color, and not one in ten of them knows what it is about.

”

“

My boy, Liberty does not come from colors, they only show party, and all the liberty you can get out of them is, liberty to get drunk at other people’s expense, liberty to ride to the poll in a dirty old cab, liberty to abuse anyone that does not wear your color, and to shout yourself hoarse at what you only half-understand

—that’s your liberty!”

“Look you here, missis,” said Jerry, “I’ve got a wife and dear children at home, and I know a father’s feelings; now get you into that cab, and I’ll take you there for nothing.

I’d be ashamed of myself to let a woman and a sick child run a risk like that.

”

He watched her go in at the door, and gently he said to himself, “

Inasmuch as ye have done it to one of the least of these.

” Then he patted my neck, which was always his way when anything pleased him.

and then they talk about compensation! You can’t make compensation; there’s all the trouble, and vexation, and loss of time, besides losing a good horse that’s like an old friend—it’s nonsense talking of compensation!

If there’s one devil that I should like to see in the bottomless pit more than another, it’s the drink devil.

”

“I had hard work at it for several weeks; you see I never did get drunk, but I found that I was not my own master, and that when the craving came on it was hard work to say ‘no.’

I saw that one of us must knock under, the drink devil or Jerry Barker, and I said that it should not be Jerry Barker, God helping me

; but it was a struggle, and I wanted all the help I could get, for till I tried to break the habit I did not know how strong it was;

Sometimes driver and horse have to wait for hours in the rain or frost, shivering with the cold, while the merry people within are dancing away to the music.

I wonder if the beautiful ladies ever think of the weary cabman waiting on his box, and his patient beast standing, till his legs get stiff with cold.

I had now most of the evening work, as I was well accustomed to standing, and Jerry was also more afraid of Hotspur taking cold. We had a great deal of late work in the Christmas week, and Jerry’s cough was bad;

“

If there’s any rule that good men should get over these things, I’m sure he will, my boy; he’s the best man I know.

I’ll look in early tomorrow.”

Again I started the heavy load, and struggled on a few yards; again the whip came down, and again I struggled forward. The pain of that great cart whip was sharp, but my mind was hurt quite as much as my poor sides.

To be punished and abused when I was doing my very best was so hard it took the heart out of me.

A third time he was flogging me cruelly, when a lady stepped quickly up to him, and said in a sweet, earnest voice, “Oh! pray do not whip your good horse any more;

“

If doing his best won’t get this load up he must do something more than his best; that’s all I know, ma’am

,” said Jakes.

His name was Nicholas Skinner, and I believe he was the man that poor Seedy Sam drove for.

I have heard men say that seeing is believing; but I should say that feeling is believing

; for much as I had seen before, I never knew till now the utter misery of a cab-horse’s life.

I have heard men say that seeing is believing; but I should say that feeling is believing; for much as I had seen before, I never knew till now the utter misery of a cab-horse’s life.

Skinner had a low set of cabs and a low set of drivers; he was hard on the men, and the men were hard on the horses.

In this place we had no Sunday rest, and it was in the heat of summer.