the summer days dragged along hot and enervating. mosquitoes and nose-flies in countless numbers became more and more annoying as the sultry period prevailed. it made grazing during most of the daytime very disagreeable. all through these long days they stood dozing in small bunches, their chins resting upon each other’s backs, their tails switching mechanically. when a momentary gust of wind came along, they would run down to the sloughs for water. there they would drink till the stinging of the pests, who were always in greater numbers above the tall, wet, slough grass, would make the place unendurable, then they would gallop away to the hill tops for relief.
beautifully tolerant of all things, always moved by the spirit of “live and let live,” queen could not understand men and insects. she could easily see why one horse might kick at another when the other came along and greedily seized upon his find of grass; but the desire to attack without reason or excuse, as it seemed to be in the character of men and insects, was unfathomable and wholly foreign to her nature. whenever men appeared there was fear and confusion and anguish. so, too, as soon as insects arrived, there was pain and discomfort.
had she been a meat eater, she would have perceived some connection between the joy of eating and the tragedy of being eaten; but queen belonged to the sweetest-tempered race on earth, whose sustenance required neither pain nor blood, and so she could not understand, and being unable to understand, she feared.
there followed a period of windstorms which carried the pests away. for a long time the herd enjoyed once more the freedom of the wilds; but another hot spell came and one day as they were eagerly seeking the higher places, they ran into a cloud of a new kind of insect, which was worse than anything they had ever experienced. this new pest settled upon them in such numbers that they changed the appearance of their heads and when in fear they tried to shake them off, the insects crept into their ears and noses, stinging viciously.
it was now the last part of the summer, the time of the year when young ants, having acquired their wings, began swarming; and this was one of the summers when these ants were more annoying than they usually are. queen did not remember ever having come upon this pest before, and felt that it was peculiar to the particular neighbourhood in which they happened to be at the time. accordingly, when first attacked by an unusually large swarm, she turned to the south, and the herd loped at her heels. by running, they rid themselves of the young ants and so continued running, till the cool of the evening cleared the air of all insects.
next day, however, they ran into another swarm and again took to flight. thus they were driven back again into the vicinity of the bowl-like valley. there because things seemed familiar they remained.
a season of constant raining followed. the cold, the excessive wetness, and the strong winds drove all pests from the plains. the rainy season passed and frosts came night after night, spreading layers of white dew on the grass and freezing the surface of the spring lake. the exhilarating days of autumn were at hand, cool, clear, and sunny. the peaceful nights scintillated with the colours of the aurora borealis and the unhindered brightness of the stars. life became again a protracted festival.
they were startled one afternoon by the sudden appearance of four strange horses who came plodding along in single file from the south. queen discovered them first as they were coming down the slope of a hill. like the rest of the herd she stopped grazing and stared at them curiously. because she saw no men on them or near them and because they came so wearily, so unenergetically, she was not afraid of them, though she regarded them with suspicion.
when they came within a few hundred feet, the herd moved off to the side, from where they studied them curiously to learn their intentions. but the strangers did not even look toward them. doggedly bobbing their weary heads, they made straight for the lake. the leader was a big, red horse with an ugly pugnacious face, the nose bone of which curved, very peculiarly, outward. his hip bones protruded out of deep hollows in his back and his sides, fallen in, revealed distinctly every hair covered rib. behind him lumbered a white mare so bent upon limping fast enough to keep up with him that she did not take her eyes off him. the third was a miserable-looking bay pony and the last was an old jade, black as a crow. all were thin and bedraggled and two of them had sores on their necks and breasts. the white mare seemed to have suffered most, for one of her hind legs was swollen to twice its normal size, and she limped very painfully.
when the queer-looking procession caught sight of the lake, they broke the line and ran down to the water, where they drank as if they had been without water for many days. while they were drinking the herd surrounded them, intending peacefully to sniff noses with them and to find out who and what manner of horses they were; but the ugly leader met the first approach with a kick and an angry whinny. they soon discovered that though the other three horses were not as mean, they, too, were ill-tempered and disagreeable. the first attempt at understanding resulted in a noisy quarrel and a stampede. when they settled down to grazing, the herd was off by itself and the four strangers were in a corner of the valley not any too near each other.
queen did not like these strangers at all. she felt that they were responsible for the unpleasant feeling that now seemed to hang in the very atmosphere. she did not know then that slavery and cruelty such as these poor creatures had endured would sour the best-tempered horse. what that slavery really meant she had yet to learn.
in spite of her feelings toward the four newcomers, there was something about the white mare that made queen interested in her. she kept raising her head and looking toward her and one time as she did so, she saw white-black approaching her. when queen saw them sniffing noses and touching each other eagerly, she trotted over to them. this time instead of limping away at her approach, the white mare waited for her. she seemed glad to touch noses with queen; but queen felt uncomfortable. the old kindly spirit that had made the white mare so lovable had given way to a disagreeable impatience and suspicion; and her presence set two emotions struggling with each other in queen’s heart. the subtle odour that made queen think of some of those distant, weary, winter nights when she lay close against her old foster mother, drew her emotionally to the old mare; while the odour of man and barn repelled her. over these emotions like a black cloud in the sky, hovered a new-born fear as if she had discerned in the poor mare’s condition the warning: “beware of man for thus he breaks the spirit and the body.”
at dusk queen led the herd in a race over the plains. the poor white mare who now clung to queen and to white-black tried to follow; but she did not go very far before in her eagerness she tripped and fell. queen and white-back went back to her and grazed about her. they began to feel that there was something terrible going to happen to her and they watched her curiously.
that night all three of them lay near each other. white-black and queen were fast asleep in the latter part of the cold night, when they were awakened by a cry from the white mare. queen jumped up in time to get out of the black old jade’s way. the night was cold and he was very thin-blooded. unable to keep warm he had gone in search of a warmer place and in his clumsy way had stepped upon the white mare’s swollen leg. white-black nipped him on the back and with a cry of protest he lumbered away into the darkness. when queen went back to sleep she was very much disturbed by the white mare’s groaning. several times she woke up and whinnied to her, but the groaning continued at intervals all through the night.
next day queen noticed that blood was running from her swollen leg, and by nightfall the white mare was nowhere to be seen. queen looked for her for a while and she saw that white-black too was anxious about her, but they did not find her that day nor the next, though they searched for her constantly as they went about their grazing.
the dull days of early winter came back, grey and silent and ominous. geese flew over them daily on their way to the south and their honking filled queen with an ineffable sadness. suddenly one day as she was grazing by herself she came upon the body of the white mare. she touched the cold, hard nose with her own and sprang away frightened. she did not try to sniff again. now she knew that this was death and hurried away.
white-black was grazing almost a quarter of a mile away. queen trotted over to him and whinnied repeatedly. he answered her, but he did not know what ailed her. she walked away a short distance and called him. first he replied while grazing, then at the second call, he raised his head and walked toward her. but he was no sooner pulling away at some grass there, when he discovered that she was some distance away again and calling as hard as ever. for some reason known only to her she was leading him away to the north again and though he went reluctantly at first, with the rest of the herd following him, they were soon well on their way. a few miles from the lake, they stopped, however, for fear that they might not come upon water. there were in this group no more than a dozen of them, all colts that had been brought up together, and they were glad to be by themselves, though as they moved on, the rest of the horses, miles behind, moved after them. when a snowstorm came and filled all the hollows, they began once more moving northward in earnest. forces they could not understand impelled them. thus they abandoned forever the scenes of their youth.
the winter passed like a night of pleasure. protected on the north by a strip of woodland many miles long, queen and her companions slept the long nights away. the snow, deep in many places, was not very deep near the wall of poplars and feeding came comparatively easily. on sunny days they spent as much time chasing each other through the deepest drifts as they did in pawing for grass. the dry snows made warm blankets and the howling winds, shrieking in the poplars, provided music for their enjoyment of life, often sad, but for all its sadness, sweet.
they were big and strong now. blood flowed rich and freely through their veins and the hair on their bodies, which was as long as the hair on the bears that at very rare intervals showed themselves and disappeared, kept them warm. the elements, no matter how savagely they raged, could not become disagreeable.
a few weeks of springtime with open plains to lope over and new grass, and they grew daily stronger and fleeter. sorrows of the dead past were forgotten and the joys of the present were so all absorbing that even man seemed to have become extinct, as far as they were concerned.
to the joy of unlimited space, of surging healthy blood, of plenty to eat and drink, of peaceful and constant companionship was added the aesthetic pleasures of love. having first discovered in themselves preferences for members of the opposite sex, they began to see traits and characteristics in their choice which thrilled them.
there were, of course, petty quarrels now and then, since love will not come unaccompanied by strife, and nature is not always provident, or when she is provident, so often disorderly. there were some disappointments and the weak, helpless here as the weak are helpless everywhere, often had to give way to the strong; but the tragedy that follows love among ferocious and greedy animals never marred their happier relations; and even the weaker ones found love requited. life on the rim of love was so rich, nature beyond love was so lavish, hurts healed before the wounds reached the flesh.
but to queen and white-black life was a game in which even tiredness had its delight. strong and healthy and beautiful, admired by the rest and followed in their every whim, they played through the uninterrupted carnival of laughing spring and smiling, drowsy summer. when winter came again, they met it without fear, willing to wade through deep snows, accepting the violent lashes of wind and blizzard, warming their hearts in the expectant joy of another spring and another summer, looking upon life, in their innocence, as an endlessly interesting cycle in which winter was the greatest discomfort and spring its eternal retribution.
