Clifton Johnson

The Little Horse and Its Kind Master

T HERE was once a man of Gotham who started for market with two bushels of wheat, and the wheat was in a bag laid across his horse's back, and the man sat just behind the bag. But he had not gone far when another man of Gotham called to him from a wayside field and said, "Your horse is small, neighbor, for so much of a load. Why do you not walk and lead it?"

"That is what I would do," replied the first man; "but my foot is lame and I cannot walk very well."

"Then if you must ride," said the other, "I think you might take the bag of wheat on your shoulder so the horse would not have to carry that, too."

"Why, so I could," said the first man; and he hoisted the bag of wheat to his shoulder and there he carried it all the way to market.

"Ah," said he, when he reached his destination, "how my little horse does pant and sweat! I did well to share the work with it, for I see clearly that the horse has had burden enough carrying me without having also to carry this heavy bag of wheat."