These antics did not break the
girl's faith; she rode him with the gentle hand a woman knows and a
horse soon learns to appreciate, and gave him to understand that he was
to have fair treatment.
Porter viewed this continuous performance with silent skepticism. He did
not abuse horses himself, neither did he put up with too much nonsense
from them. To him they were like children, needing a lot of tolerant
kindness, but, also, at times, to be greatly improved by a sound
whipping. Once when he suggested something of this sort to Allis,
saying that Lauzanne was a spoiled child, she admitted he was, but that
thoughtless cruelty and not indulgence had done the harm, therefore
kindness was the cure. The first sign of regeneration was the implicit
faith that Lauzanne began to place in his young mistress. At first when
she put up a hand to pet him he would jerk his head away in affright;
now he snuggled her shoulder, or nibbled at her glove in full spirit of
comradarie. Then one day in a gallop came a stronger manifestation, a
brief minute of exhilaration, with after-hours of thankfulness, and
beyond that, alas for the uncertainty of a spoiled temper, an added
period of wallowing in the Slough of Despond!
It was on a crisp, sparkling morning, and with Shandy--it was before his
downfall--on Lucretia, another stable lad, Ned Carter, on Game Boy, and
Allis on Lauzanne, the three swung off for a working gallop of a mile or
more.
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