AUNT MARTHA’S DRIVING HORSE

New Zealand Tablet, 17 August 1916, Page 5

AUNT MARTHA’S DRIVING HORSE

For weeks now the house had been strewn with automobile catalogues, and the principal topic of conversation had been carburettors, starting and lighting systems, cylinders, tires, and gasoline. Then one day Hiram Brown went to town and came back with a big red motor car. The agent came out with him and stayed two days. At the end of that time he declared that Hiram was fully proficient in the art of driving the car, and went back to town, taking a cheque with him that reduced Hiram's barik account by three hundred pounds. '■_ Everyone in the family except Aunt Martha, Hiram Brown's sister, was delighted with the new car. Mrs. Brown neglected her housework to go 'auto-riding,' and, in order to have more time to take her, Hiram hired a boy to do the chores. Mary, their eighteen-year-old daughter, soon learned to run the automobile as well as her father could, and before long the boys, fourteen and ten years old respectively, knew the car from radiator to rear axle. Such joys were not for Aunt Martha. She regarded the shining automobile with suspicion; and as for riding in it, she would as soon have thought of flying over the church in a hand basket. Aunt Martha had a driving horse of her own, Old Dick by name. He was a long-legged, jointed animal, but he covered the ground fast enough for Aunt Martha, and he had no carburettor to get out of order. Old Dick had made a three-minute record once, but that was long

ago. Like Aunt Martha, he regarded motor cars with suspicion, although he had too clear an opinion of his own rights to shy into the ditch and give them the whole of the road. So when the Brown family went visiting or to church, Hiram and Mrs. Brown and Mary and the boys went ahead in the automobile and Aunt Martha brought up the rear with Old Dick. To all arguments and pleadings to ride in the car she turned a deaf ear. One evening Aunt Martha was jogging home from the village three miles away, where she and the rest of the family had been to church. The others had gone on ahead in the car. Aunt Martha was still two miles from home when she rounded a corner and came upon the automobile standing silent in the middle of the road. Hiram had lifted up the hood and was anxiously peering in at the engine. ' What's the trouble?' Aunt Martha called out as Old Dick stopped at a respectful distance. With a grunt Hiram turned and glared at her. 'How do I know what's the matter? Can't you see the thing won't run?' Aunt Martha drove up alongside. ' You and Mary had better get in with me, 7 she said to Mrs. Brown. ' My rig is only one horse-power and yours is forty, but from the looks of things I reckon I'll be the first one home.' After she had left Mrs. Brown and Mary safe at the back gate, Aunt xviartha drove back for the boys. Then she made another trip for Hiram, who by now was ready to believe that the car was beyond repair. From that evening Aunt Martha and Old Dick assumed a patronising air towards the motor car. They viewed its shining coat and forty horse-power with disdain, and refused to be impressed when it whizzed past them. So matters went on for several weeks, when one day for some unaccountable reason Old Dick became frightened at a calf at the side of the road and ran away, Aunt Martha dropped the lines arid screamed, but Old Dick only ran the harder. The automobile was not far ahead, and a moment later Dick sped past it, with the buggy swaying and pitching from side to side. Hiram caught one glimpse of Aunt Martha's terrorstricken face, and then crowded on the speed in pursuit of Old Dick. For a few moments it seemed that the horse was more than a match for the automobile. Then the car began to gain on him. Out of the corner of his eye he saw it coming, and with a auick turn leaped the fence at the side of the road and, leaving the buggy in the-.ditch, fled through a cornfield. Aunt Martha was badly shaken. She was too weak to make any objection when they lifted her into the car and took her home. For a week she lay in bed. Then she got up, apparently as well as ever. Meanwhile Old Dick had come home and resumed his accustomed peaceful attitude. Hiram had repaired the buggy and harness and put the buggy away in the shed. But if he thought that the accident would cause Aunt Martha to desert Old Dick and overcome her prejudice against the automobile, he was mistaken. ' Old Dick needs me more than ever now,' she said. ' His eyesight is getting poor; that's why he got scared at the calf. It would break his poor old heart if I should leave him now; and I'm so nervous since the runaway that I couldn't bear to ride in that thing.' ' I should think, you'd be nervous riding behind Old Dick, for fear he'd run away again,' Hiram said. horse,' she replied, ' than to run the continual chance of being blown up by that forty-horse-power engine.' One day early in August Mary came running up from the mail box with an excited face. ' Run the car out, won't you, father, while I get ready?' she cried. ' I've got to catch the four-fifteen train to Elkton.' Not until they were in the car and speeding toward the station did she explain. ' You know that school I've been trying to get over near Elkton?' she said. .' Well, it seems to be a very popular school. The director has written that there

are six applicants. He wants to meet us this afternoon, and then he'll stand us all up in a row and decide, I suppose.' ' Wasn't he rather late in notifying you V ' I think that the letter was delayed. It was postmarked day before yesterday.' Her father settled back in his seat and pressed his foot down hard on the accelerator. The car leaped' obediently forward. Then there was a sudden hissing" explosion and the automobile lurched to one side. Mr. Brown threw on the brakes and brought it to a stop. ' A tire blown up! It'll take an hour to fix it. We'll never make the train now.' 'l'm going to walk,' Mary declared, climbing to the ground. -■-.-. ' You can never make it. You might as well giveit up and try for another school"' ' If I can't make it walking, I'll run !' Mary called back over her shoulder as she started down the road. As she came to the top of the next hill she sawi Aunt Martha and Old Dick down in the hollow. Old" Dick was standing in the middle of the road with his ears laid back and his legs braced wide apart. Aunt Martha was leaning back in her seat, knitting. '-> 'Aunt Martha!' called Mary, as soon as she within speaking distance. ' What's the matter £ ' There's nothing the matter with me,' replied' Aunt Martha placidly. 'Dick seemed to want a rest; and as I happened to have my knitting along, I'm in no particular hurry.' -v..., "'.'-'■ *r. j. ' I do believe he's balky,' Mary said, as she noticed Old Dick's stubborn attitude. ' I'm trying to csttchr the train,' she continued, as she started on again. •' T lose my chance at the Elkton school if I don't.' 'You'll never get there!' cried • Aunt Martha. 1 ' Cant' you help her, Dick ' Dick pricked up his ears as Mary passed him. Then he got himself under way with an agility that, considering his years, was surprising. As soon as. he caught up with Mary he stopped and looked at her inquiringly. She clambered into the buggy and Old Dick started on againnot at his usual amble, but ata brisk trot. His years seemed to fall from"him.' He' threw up his head and cocked his ears, and his oldlegs flew rapidly back and forth. i ' I almost think he understood,' Mary said. *, 'Of course he did. He can understand just as well as you or I, can't you, Dick?' ;$ But Dick was too busy to reply. . "[ ". Past trees and telephone poles they flew. Once; they met an automobile, but Old Dick swerved neither," to the right nor to the left, and the machine took to.thij ditch. •„'..,,• * ''■'•'-■• i Dick turned the next corner with -the buggy on; two wheels. Mary looked at her watch. ..' Three minutes yet!' she cried. . .--.- ; ~ _-•.■. ' Hurry,-Dick !' At the same moment there came, a distant whistle from down the track. Old Dick laid? back his ears and started to gallop. y After that it was all that either Mary or- Aunt Martha could do to hang on. Now and then theymet a team, but Old Dick never gave an inch of the; road. On they flew amid a cloud of dust, while the fence posts flashed by in a dizzy procession. They: could see the track now. The train was whistling for tho station. 'We'll never make it!' Mary cried. Then they turned into the main street of the little town and entered on the last stretch of the race. A flock of chickens flew squawking to one side. Women screamed; men ran after the buggy. One man came, out into the road and waved a baseball bat, but Old Dick only lowered his head and made straight for him. The man leaped aside not a moment too soon. A little farther on a cow was crossing the street; one of the wheels grazed her, and she scurried down the road like a hen before a hailstorm. At the farther end of the street was the station, and in front of it stood the train. With their heads out of the windows, the passengers were watching Old Dick's flying legs. Just as the train started Old Dick dashed up beside the track and, bracing his feet, threw

all his weight back into the shafts. The buggy came against him, but he held firm. Mary made a flying leap over the front wheel, picked herself up, and dashed for the rear platform of the last car. A sympathetic brakeman pulled her aboard, the passengers cheered and the train was gone. Aunt Martha picked up the reins, and Old Dick ambled back to the store, j When Mary burst into the house that night, every- ""* one knew by the way she opened the door that she had been successful. I got the school!' she cried. Then she rushed over to Aunt Martha. ' It's all due to you and Old Dick ! I'm going to use my first month's salary to buy Old Dick a new harness. And I want to say * right here,' she added, turning to the rest of the family, ' that, if any of you want to make any more fun of Aunt Martha's driving horse, you'd better do it when I'm not round.' Then she picked up the*sugar bowl and ran out to the barn to thank Dick.