IIGETTING ACQUAINTED
Farmer Green’sold horse, Ebenezer, stood in the barn and gazed none too pleasantly over the partition at his new neighbor in the next stall.
His neighbor, Mistah Mule, cocked one of his black ears at Ebenezer.
“Ole hoss,” he said with something like a grin, “I and you is goin’ to be hitched up together in the mornin’.”
This news almost took Ebenezer’s breath away.
“What!” he exclaimed. “Is Farmer Green going to work us in double harness? I—I can hardly believe it.”
“That what he done told his boy,” Mistah Mule declared. “But don’t you go to worryin’ yourself ’boutwork. I kin show you plenty tricks to git outer workin’.”
The old horse Ebenezer stared coldly at Mistah Mule. Ebenezer was no shirk. And he didn’t like the thought of being driven with a lazy partner like this one.
“Where was your home before you came here?” he asked Mistah Mule.
“My real home is ’way down South,” the newcomer informed him. “I come North last spring. An’ I been spendin’ my time over where they buildin’ the new railroad.”
“So you’ve been working on the railroad this summer!” Ebenezer exclaimed.
“Notworkin’exactly!” said Mistah Mule. “You might say I beenbalkin’.”
“What!” Ebenezer gasped. “Are you balky, sometimes?”
“I most gen’rally is,” said Mistah Mule. And then he gave his odd laugh, “Hee-haw! Hee-haw!”
“Let me give you a bit of advice,” said the old horse, looking very solemn. “Just forget all such tricks as balking and kicking. You’ve come to make your home among kind people. You’ll be well treated here. And you ought to behave politely. When Farmer Green asks you to work, I hope you’ll do your best.”
Mistah Mule threw back his head and showed his yellow teeth in a disagreeable grin.
“I has to have my fun,” he remarked. “Sometimes I has it one way; sometimes another.”
“You’ll have the best of times on this farm,” Ebenezer advised Mistah Mule,“if only you’ll be gentle and willing. I’ve lived here all my life; and I couldn’t ask for a better home. And I’ve always tried to behave myself.”
“Don’t you never kick?” Mistah Mule inquired.
“Oh, yes! When I’m in the pasture I sometimes kick.”
“I calls that kickin’up,” Mistah Mule retorted with a snort. “What about kickin’folks?”
“Never! Never!” Ebenezer replied in a shocked tone.
Just then a step told them that Farmer Green had entered the barn.
“Just watch out, if he comes near me!” Mistah Mule warned Ebenezer.