black beauty chapter 6 a lesson from
merry legs
the squire's daughters jesse and flora
like to play with all the children in
the neighborhood
the other children love mary legs just
as much as the girls did
the cheerful gray pony often spent hours
giving them all rides in the orchard or
up and down the drive
one afternoon he spent an especially
long time with them
finally james led merry legs back into
the stable
there you go you little rascal
the groom said with a chuckle as he
pulled off the pony saddle and bridle
you'd better behave yourself better next
time
otherwise we will both get in deep
trouble
when the young man had left i looked
into the pony stall
what have you been doing merry legs i
asked him
merry legs tossed his pretty little head
nothing much he said
just teaching some young humans a lesson
that's all
ginger looked up from the rack where she
stood eating hay
what do you mean she asked
they couldn't tell when i'd had enough
he said so i tossed them off backward
that was the only way to make them
understand
what i cried
are you saying you threw off miss jessie
or miss flora
of course not merry legs looked offended
i would never do that
i take better care of those young ladies
than their own parents do
and i'm always patient with the smaller
children no matter how much they squeal
or bounce on my back
i'm the one who teaches them all to ride
yes that's what everyone says i said
it was the older boys who needed the
lesson this time merry legs went on
in case you don't know boys need to be
trained as much as we horses do when
we're colts
they need to be taught what's right
i see i said but what happened
i'm trying to tell you mary legs tossed
his head again
the other children rode me for a couple
of hours as usual
finally the older boys decided it was
their turn
at first i had no problem with that
i carried them around one at a time
galloping through the fields and orchard
just as they wished
this went on for at least another hour
you must have been tired by then ginger
said
a little merry legs said
but i know my job
and i was happy to do it even though the
boys had made a whip out of a large twig
they found
they used it a bit too much but i put up
with it for a while they ran me around
and around as fast as i could go
whipping me all the way
finally though i decided i'd had enough
so i stopped a few times to give them
the hint but all they did was whip me
even more
oh dear i said
those silly boys never stop to think
that a pony can get tired or have any
feelings at all merry legs said
they treated me like an old bicycle
finally i decided it was time to help
them understand it was wrong
so i stood up on my hind legs just
enough to tip my rider off over my hind
end that's all
did they understand then i asked
not at first merry legs said calmly
i had to tip each of the boys off a few
more times
but finally they began to catch on
and when they brought me to james and
complained he was annoyed to see their
homemade whip he said they didn't need
anything like that to ride me
ginger tossed her head
if they tried any of that with me i
would have given them a good kick
i'm sure you would have merry legs said
but that's because you've never been in
a place that treated you kindly until
now
anyway i'm not like you
that's why the squire trusts me so
completely with the little girls
the other parents trust me too
they know i would never hurt their
children besides those boys are not bad
boys
they don't mean to be cruel
they only needed a lesson that's all
i suppose it's your job to teach them i
said thoughtfully
yes it is merry legs agreed
and i want to do a good job
the people here have treated me kindly
for the past five years and i would
never do anything to make them angry
if i suddenly started kicking children
for acting like children where would i
be
sold off in a hurry that's where and
none of us want that
i suppose that mary legs was right about
that
none of us wanted to be sold to another
owner
we were all happy at bertwick park even
ginger and hope that we could stay there
forever
little fox
you