Trooper Tales — page 230: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

214 ‘The Story of a Cavalry Horse. There are two kinds of recruits in the cavalry service— the horses and men. Both must be instructed in the pri- mary mysteries of drills and bugle-calls. Both suffer during the first days, but gradually the unvarying system becomes grafted into the very nature of the trooper and his mount. They need only to be parted from the life for a little while to learn how dearly they love it. Here is the story of a wild, irresponsible colt, whose brain was full of mother and meadow memories, and who became Sheri- dan, the pride of a Black Horse troop. In many ways it is the story of any cavalry horse. Long after he became the joy of his master and the envy of every other cavalryman, Sheridan still remem- bered those dark, awful days in the corral. Every good trooper knows that a horse can suffer mentally, and that a colt is like a child, inasmuch as he does not forget his mother and his first associations in a day. And when a big cavalryman is seen to pet and cheer a lonely, tremb- ling stranger on the picket line, you can usually judge that he is a good soldier and a man with a human heart. There were many nervous youngsters in the corral where the black three-year-old was turned loose. Many of them snorted wildly and stood at bay when a man approached. The pretty gelding with soft, jetty eyes— the little heart-hungry three-year-old—was soon to learn what made the other horses so wicked and fearful. _ There was the curling swish of a lariat, a sickening jar from the taut rope—then the black gelding fell heavily to the turf. One horseman sat upon the trembling animal’s (COMMA NOVO KS ae)