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Ajax Patterns How to Code .NET: Tips and Tricks for Coding Available
and Best Practices
Ajax and REST Recipes: A
.NET 1.1 and .NET 2.0 Applications Effectively

How to Code .NET

Problem-Solution Approach
Dear Reader,
Foundations of Object-
Oriented Programming Like you, I am a coder, architect, and developer. People who are coders, archi-

How to
Using .NET 2.0 Patterns tects, or developers strive to do their best, and if given the choice they will
always do something correctly. Of course, this begs the question: Why do we
have so many bugs in our code?
I think the main reason for buggy code is that we are all short on time. We
don’t have the luxury of investigating new Framework features fully or exploring
innovative new techniques as thoroughly as we would like, because we’re all
watching the clock. That means our code has bugs—the new Framework feature
we implemented doesn’t work quite as expected, and the new best practice we
put in place doesn’t seem to work the same way for every input. These bugs are

Code .NET
frustrating and can often be very difficult to solve.
This book is a response to that problem. In it I have investigated and recorded
my experiences of a wide range of .NET Framework features. They’re arranged
in simple, bite-sized sections dedicated to problem solving, informing you of
little-known functionality and keeping you up to date with the latest design
thinking. It’s a road map to your more effective use of the .NET Framework.
For example, the .NET Framework 2.0 introduced the yield keyword. On the
face of it, this is a really cool new piece of functionality that we’d all like to use.
But what’s it really like? Is it buggy? Is it going to be the future of all iterators?
This book digs into these questions and more to provide you with the answers
that you need.

Christian Gross
Tips and Tricks for Coding .NET 1.1
and .NET 2.0 Applications Effectively

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7443FM.qxd 9/21/06 10:46 PM Page i

How to Code .NET

Tips and Tricks for Coding
.NET 1.1 and .NET 2.0
Applications Effectively

Christian Gross
7443FM.qxd 9/21/06 10:46 PM Page ii

How to Code .NET: Tips and Tricks for Coding .NET 1.1 and .NET 2.0 Applications Effectively
Copyright © 2006 by Christian Gross
All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval
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7443FM.qxd 9/21/06 10:46 PM Page iii

Contents at a Glance

About the Author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii

About the Technical Reviewer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii

■CHAPTER 1 Testing Your Code . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

■CHAPTER 2 .NET Runtime- and Framework-Related Solutions . . . . . . . 31
■CHAPTER 3 Text-Related Solutions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
■CHAPTER 4 C# Coding Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

■INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209

iii
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7443FM.qxd 9/21/06 10:46 PM Page v

Contents

About the Author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii

About the Technical Reviewer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii

■CHAPTER 1 Testing Your Code . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Quick Notes About TDD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Getting Started with TDD and NUnit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Writing Tests Using Contexts and Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Writing Tests for Code Pieces That Have No Tests or Few Tests . . . . . . . . 11
Writing Tests for Code Pieces That Don’t Give Information Back . . . . . . . 19
Verifying the Correctness of an Object Instance
Without Having Access . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

■CHAPTER 2 .NET Runtime- and Framework-Related Solutions . . . . . . . 31

Keeping Value Types and Reference Types Straight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Using Delegates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Versioning Assemblies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Loading and Unloading Assemblies Dynamically . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Loading Assemblies Dynamically . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Loading and Unloading Assemblies Dynamically . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Implementing GetHashCode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Thinking of .NET Generics as Black Boxes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Figuring Out What Generic Methods Do. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Using the new and class Keywords with .NET Generics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

■CHAPTER 3 Text-Related Solutions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

Converting a String to an Array and Vice Versa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Parsing Numbers from Buffers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Processing Plain-Vanilla Numbers in Different Cultures . . . . . . . . . . 89
Managing the Culture Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
v
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vi ■CONTENTS

When to Use StringBuilder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

Finding a Piece of Text Within a Text Buffer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Always Implement ToString . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Using a Disposable Type to Find Multiple Text
Pieces and Iterate the Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Making ToString Generate Structured Output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

■CHAPTER 4 C# Coding Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

What Does the Yield Keyword Really Generate? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

Using Inheritance Effectively . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Implementing Interfaces. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Naming Conventions for a Namespace, a Class, and an Interface . . . . . 135
Namespaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Class and Interface Identifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
Understanding the Overloaded Return Type and Property . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Nullable Types: A Null Is Not Always a Null . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Abstract-Class Bridge-Pattern Variation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
Nested Private-Class Bridge-Pattern Variation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Dealing with Marker Interfaces or Base Classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Editing Text Using the Command Pattern. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
Marker Interfaces and Their Dependencies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
How Marker Interfaces Dependencies Are Implemented . . . . . . . . 157
A Null Value Is Not Always a Null State . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
The Essentials of the Factory Pattern. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
The Classical Factory Pattern . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
More Sophisticated Factory Implementations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
Don’t Expose a Class’s Internal State. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
Designing Consistent Classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
Immutable Types Are Scalable Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
Understanding and Using Functors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
The Comparer Functor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
The Closure Functor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
The Predicate Functor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
The Transformer Functor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
Functors in Practice. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
Avoiding Parameters That Have No Identity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205

■INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
7443FM.qxd 9/21/06 10:46 PM Page vii

About the Author

Many people say that by looking at a person’s dog, you can tell what
the person is like. Well, the picture of me is my dog Louys, an English
Bulldog. And yes, my English Bulldog and I have many common
characteristics.
But what about my biography? It’s pretty simple: I am guy
who has spent oodles of time strapped to a chair debugging and
taking apart code. In fact, I really enjoy this business we call software development. I have
ever since I learned how to peek and poke my first bytes. I have written various books,
including Ajax and REST Recipes: A Problem-Solution Approach, Foundations of Object-
Oriented Programming Using .NET 2.0 Patterns, and A Programmer’s Introduction to
Windows DNA, all available from Apress.
These days I enjoy coding and experimenting with .NET, as it is a fascinating environ-
ment. .NET makes me feel like a kid opening a present on Christmas morning. You had an idea
what the gift was, but you were not completely sure. And with .NET there is no relative giving
you socks or a sweater. It’s excitement all the way!

vii
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About the Technical Reviewer

■JASON LEFEBVRE is vice president and founding partner of Intensity Software, Inc.
(http://www.intensitysoftware.com), which specializes in providing custom Microsoft .NET
applications, IT consulting services, legacy system migration, and boxed software products to
a rapidly growing set of clients. Jason has been using Microsoft .NET since its Alpha stages in
early 2000 and uses Visual Studio and the Microsoft .NET Framework daily while creating
solutions for Intensity Software’s clients. Jason has been a participating author for a number of
books and has written numerous articles about Microsoft .NET-related topics.

ix
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Acknowledgments

T his book would not be complete without you, the reader. I came upon the idea for this
book after I realized that I had a number of “canned” solutions to problems that readers of my
articles, clients, or attendees of my conference sessions posed to me. For example, Andreas
Penzold, a reader of my materials, worked with me to figure out what you can expect of
GetHashCode and Equals.

xi
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7443FM.qxd 9/21/06 10:46 PM Page xiii

Introduction

T he title of this book may seem odd; you probably already know how to write code in .NET.
But you can always benefit from knowing more. Coders, architects, and developers always
strive to do their best, and if given the choice to do something correctly or incorrectly they will
do it correctly. So why do we have so many bugs in our code? I could say, “Heck, it’s all the
managers making bonehead decisions.” It would be a popular answer, but it would not be
fair. We have bugs because humans and the communication between humans are imperfect.
The other major reason why code has bugs is that people do not have the time or energy
to pour resources into specific problems. When you are working on an application, you are
confronted with thousands of specific problems, and you have to assign a priority. This is
where this book is aimed. I take the time to investigate the specific problems and figure
out how to solve them. Your responsibility is to read the solutions and implement them as
appropriate.
This is not a patterns book, even though I reference patterns. It is not a book meant to solve
all problems, because like you I have to assign priority to the problems I want to solve. This book
is the first of a series, and subsequent volumes will solve more problems. This book aims to
look at a problem, feature, or fact and then figure out what that problem, feature, or fact implies.
As a quick example .NET 2.0 introduced the yield keyword. Cool use of technology, but
what does yield really imply? Is yield buggy? Is yield the future of all iterators? After reading
this book you’ll know all of yield’s implications and ramifications.
If you read this book and disagree with me, let me know why you disagree. Tell me what
you think I did wrong. Sometimes I will correct you, but other times, we’ll both learn some-
thing. Or if you want me to figure out a solution to a specific problem you are having, tell me.
If I end up writing about our discussion, I will credit you and give you a free copy of my next
book. Send your love or hate to [email protected].

Source Code
The source code is available in the Source Code/Download section of the Apress website
(http://www.apress.com). Additionally, you can visit http://www.devspace.com/codingdotnet
to download the code.

xiii
7443FM.qxd 9/21/06 10:46 PM Page xiv
Discovering Diverse Content Through
Random Scribd Documents
 Birds came daily in greater numbers from the south and their
songs augmented the nameless urge that the south winds bore and
filled the desolate wilds with friendliness and goodwill. Before the
snows had completely disappeared, a layer of thick green grass
began carpeting the earth and myriads of delicate crocuses studded
the green with colour-illumined stars.
Long as the days were becoming, the colts found them all too
short for the full expression of the joy that spring was giving them.
Nights came altogether too soon and the vapoury light of early dawn
revealed them already romping over the plains, seeking to rid their
joints of the sleepy feeling that the long winter had given them. In
wide circles they ran, plunging through sloughs, jumping, kicking at
the air, pretending to bite each other in violent anger, stopping only
when hunger demanded it.
Changes met them wherever they looked. The earth itself and all
life upon it seemed to have become an endless play of the forces of
change. Just as each day was in itself a succession of changes,
white light merging into the tinted colours of evening, fading out in
night and breaking again into the colours and the light of a new day,
so one day was different from another and they felt themselves each
day changing from what they had been the day before.
Queen was only vaguely conscious of these changes in herself,
and in her companions, but one change was clearest of all. Most
easily perceptible of all, this change, in a way, represented them all.
It was the change which she one day realised was taking place in
the black colt. Something was very apparently happening to him. His
black hair fell rapidly, as she had realised her own hair was falling;
but the black colt was steadily growing less black, turning white as
night turns to day. When he was white enough to startle her, she
realised that henceforth he was to be white as his mother was. So
distracting was this change, however, that she sometimes looked at
him with the feeling that he was another colt, and in those rare
moments she experienced a peculiar depressive emotion, like the
feeling she had experienced when she was standing before her dead
mother, looking confusedly down upon her. Yet she knew that it was
he. There were fortunately other characteristics that remained
unchanged. In time, of course, she got quite used to the change in
his appearance; but she never forgot that he had been black. The
image of him, the picture that rose in her mind when she thought of
him and when he was not immediately before her, was a changeable
image which was black one moment and white the next.
If Queen had been in the habit of applying to every image in her
mind some name, she would have called him, “White-black.” Possibly
she might have added the word or the idea, “big,” for he was much
bigger than he had been; but, since that quality applied to all the
colts, she would probably have left that off.
By the varying degrees of this quality in the many colts, as well as
by the many other qualities she learned belonged to all or to each of
them, Queen knew one from the other. All through the long winter
her companionship had been restricted to the black colt and his
mother, but now, the common desires of youth brought the colts
together and led them in time to abandon the companionship of the
mares and the adult horses. Some of them went back every day to
their mothers for milk, but they all played by themselves and even at
night they rested in a group together, away from their mothers.
Though their mothers had their own social life and activities to
occupy them and did not mind the daily absence of their overgrown
foals, their maternal instincts, their anxiety over their erstwhile
babies, was still very great. In spite of this division of interests, in
spite of this habitual grouping, they lived near each other and at the
first sound or sign of danger, they gathered and fled in concert.
The old desire for her mother, the longing, the urge to go forth
and to seek, had lost what little definiteness it had had and had
turned into an impulse to go, which spasmodically welled up in
Queen and sent her loping over the plains without purpose. Always
as soon as he saw her start away, White-black loped after her and
always the rest of the colts followed. Sometimes the older horses
and mares, mistaking the escapade for a sign of danger, would lope
after them.
First happening occasionally, this game began to take place daily
and even several times a day. Just as the colts and other horses got
into the habit of following her, Queen acquired the habitual desire to
be followed.
It happened one morning that the big brown colt led the race.
Jealousy seized at the heart and mind of Queen and she exerted
herself to the very end of her strength to get ahead of him, as if her
life depended upon doing so. She puffed and snorted and pumped
away with her thin long legs, but could not even get abreast of him.
Behind her she could hear the milder snorting of White-black.
Suddenly she veered to the left. She was exhausted and intended
getting out of the way of the herd; but she felt White-black veering
with her and knew that the others were following him.
Quickly she seized the opportunity. She exerted herself with
renewed hope and sped on harder than ever and soon the brown
colt found himself alone. To the left was the whole herd racing
madly after Queen, in an ecstasy of motion. He turned and followed
them, trying hard to catch up, but realising that he had lost. On the
other hand Queen had discovered a trick whereby the newly
acquired leadership could be kept, and she meant to keep it.
Their food grew in abundance wherever they turned. The grass
was rich and juicy; wild plants, sweet and delightful to the taste,
grew abundantly on the hillsides; and water, cool and refreshing,
trembled in every hollow.
Plenty to eat and a great deal of exercise to sharpen the appetite
filled out all the depressions in Queen’s body and because she was
too active to be fat, she became delightfully plump. Her hair now
shorter was sleek and its gloss flashed in the sunlight. Her mane was
luxuriantly thick and wavy. Part of it came down between her ears
and over the white spot on her forehead, down to her eyes, giving
her magnificent head, with the imprint of sadness upon it, a touch of
queenliness that few queens possess.
We all love beauty without being able to say just what it is. The
colts felt a something about her which aroused in them a sort of
homage, spontaneous and unquestioned. White-black, strong and
good-natured, kept the other colts at a safe distance; but they
availed themselves of every chance to touch her, to graze where she
was grazing or to run alongside of her. Sometimes White-black
resented the attention some big fellow offered and started a quarrel
which resulted in his defeat. At such times he would assume the
attitude of one who had been convinced of being wrong. After all he
was yet too young to be serious in his love affairs and his affection
for Queen was due more to their having been reared together than
to anything else.
Queen loved them all, but she loved White-black most and every
colt knew it. Many a quarrel ended in his victory because of her
attitude rather than his strength, but he did not know that. Next to
him Queen favoured the white mare and next to her, the old sorrel
work-horse. White-black understood her love for his mother; but he
could not fathom her predilection for the old horse. For a long time,
when the old sorrel out of pure reminiscent fondness approached
Queen, White-black would lose his temper, kick at the old horse and
attempt to bite him; but where Queen sometimes allowed the colts
to fight it out between themselves, she invariably interfered in any
attempt to wrangle with the sorrel by taking part in it on his side. In
time, White-black learned to let him alone.
The lull of the summer began to creep into the long days, and
mosquitoes and nose-flies in vast numbers came to blight the
sweetness of the spring wilds. The mosquitoes, annoying as these
bloody little pests were, were not half so bad as the nose-flies. The
very sight of their long beaks and yellow backs would drive the colts
frantic. Grazing quietly, they would suddenly begin bobbing their
heads up and down and then start away over the plains as if
something frightful were after them.
 This murderous pest always started an attack by buzzing around
the nose like a bee, then landing on the breast it would creep up the
neck till it reached the muzzle, where it would quietly settle down.
Puncturing a hole in the tender nose, it would insert its beak and
drink freely and unshakeably, then fly away leaving a hurt that
burned for hours. When they first appeared, the older horses,
knowing them, would keep their noses in the grass as they grazed,
or they would, when through grazing, gather in groups and rest their
chins firmly upon each other’s backs, thus giving the pest no chance
to creep up. In time the colts learned to protect themselves in the
same way.
When sultry spells were suddenly broken by gusts of unbridled
winds, which would carry the pests away, the colts would give
themselves over to eating and drinking and merrymaking.
There came a sultry spell in the early days of summer. Every chin
was resting upon some friend’s back. Tails switched ceaselessly and
feet stamped the ground with drowsy rhythm. The air was still. Not a
blade of grass moved. The silence was broken only by the nauseous
singing of mosquitoes and the monotonous droning of nose-flies.
Suddenly there came upon the still, warm air the tattoo of distant
hoof-beats. Two horsemen, coming up over a hill to the south, were
just in the act of separating with the obvious intention of coming
together on the other side of them, when Queen discovered them.
Instantly the group broke up, and colts and mares and horses mixed
in a noisy stampede.
When the older horses wearied of the race, they stopped to look
back anxiously at the pursuing riders; but Queen, in whom the fear
of man, dormant all winter, had now awakened with great intensity,
tore away to the north, snorting as she went, her tail at an angle
behind her, loping as fast as she could despite the heat and the
insects.
She came breathlessly to the summit of a rather high hill and
turned to look back. Some of the colts and some of the faster adults
were there with her, but the white mare and the old sorrel were not
there. Half a mile behind them she could see the riders, now facing
south; and beyond them she saw the part of the herd which they
had captured.
White-black was standing beside Queen when he suddenly
discovered the loss of his mother. Neighing loudly and distractedly,
he started down the hill after the men. Queen was afraid to go with
him, yet she did not want to let him go alone. She followed him,
calling to him as she went; but White-black persisted. When they got
within a quarter of a mile of the men, they saw one of them turn off
to the side and then turn backward. White-black then realised the
danger of continuing after them. Judging by horses he had known,
horses reared in barnyards, the man thought that it would be a
simple matter to get the rest of them, now that he had captured
some of them; but he was mistaken.
It was anything but a simple matter. Queen stopped so short that
one of the colts, following along behind, hurt himself, running into
her. With a stamp of her strong front leg, she turned north and once
more led the race for freedom.
All afternoon they ran as fast as their strength would allow. The
smell of man hung in the air before Queen’s nose, poisoning her
blood with hate of him. She had little time to question, yet her whole
soul, confused by fear and the urgent need to make distance, sought
the why of this two-legged creature, always breaking in upon their
peace and always hurting them.
At last they began to feel that no one was pursuing them and
stopped to investigate. There was not the faintest glimpse of
anything on hill or horizon and in the air there was no trace of man.
In the evening they fed about a slough and at night they slept on
the north side of it with their heads turned toward the south.
Early next morning White-black was seized again by an intense
longing for his mother and braving the terrors of captivity, he started
again in search of her. They were trotting and walking along
leisurely, searching the spaces constantly when they came upon a
hill from where they spied a number of horses galloping toward
them. They got frightened and turned back north, but soon stopped
again to ascertain who it was that was coming, and so these horses
gained upon them.
They proved to be three of the colts and a big mare who had
somehow broken free from the cunning little men. They were so
excited that they would not stop to sniff noses. While they passed
through the group they trotted, but as soon as they were on the
other side they broke away in a gallop. Queen and White-black and
all the rest caught the contagion of their fear, abandoned their
search for those who were lost to them and ran with the feeling that
danger of captivity had become imminent once more. And for almost
a week they continued their desultory flight.
When the fear of the little men creatures had lost some of its
intensity, White-black and Queen made several attempts to find the
white mare. Her form seemed to flash across the prairies like
patches of sunlight, seen only at the vanishing moment. Often they
called loud and long trying in vain to pierce the unknown and
waiting hopelessly for a reply.
But this, too, was the inevitable, and railing and fretting was no
solution. In time the hunger for his mother shrank back into the
depths of White-black’s limited soul and the full ardour of his love
fell to the lot of Queen. And Queen felt in the touch and the
presence of White-black a compensation for the aches in her soul,
which, like wounds, had healed, but had left their scars for life.
 CHAPTER VI

HOW MAN BREAKS THE SPIRIT AND THE BODY

HE 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.
 CHAPTER VII

THE CONSPIRACY OF MAN AND COYOTE

HEN came an early spring. Geese returned from the south.

The sadness in their honking had given way to the
exaltation of rebirth. The snows melted almost in a day.
Hundreds of wild ducks populated the many sloughs in the
hollows, and filled the delightful evenings with the soft
calling of their love-making. In the still nights or as she lay
through the rest periods which she now so strangely needed, Queen
kept her ears pricked high to catch the last faint sound of every love
call and the air now almost always vibrated with some one form or
another of these calls.
White-black, still a playful colt, thrilled her with his presence or the
touch of his lovely nose; but something sweet and remote was
mysteriously laying hold upon the love in her heart. She liked to half
close her eyes and doze, floating as she dozed, on the waves of this
new emotion. It seemed a joyous feeling all her own and unlike any
joy she had ever experienced before. It was a joy she felt within, a
joy that expressed itself best in dreaming rather than in the activity
that her other joys had always stimulated.
She liked to wander away by herself. White-black would follow her
about a good deal and sought to arouse her old play spirit; but when
he realised that he could not influence her any more as he used to,
he learned to let her alone. She seemed to have lost her agility and
preferred to be on the outskirts of the circle of the herd where she
could move about with less excitement. She liked to wander around
the small ponds and listen to the croaking of frogs, always lingering
till the night shadows lay thick over all things and she heard the
ineffable half murmur, half song of wild ducks, as they paddled along
in the stillness of the night.
Often by day she would stop her shuffling gait and with her nose
down among the blades of grass, she would watch the little
sandpiper, wondering what he meant with his heart-rending pee-
weet and his eternal seeking. Sometimes she would stand for a long
time and watch the brown curlew and listen to his persistent,
lugubrious complaint. All these sounds, these melodious cries of
strange little souls, somehow responded harmoniously to voices and
emotions in her own soul, and she looked upon them as fellow
beings of the wilds she loved, knowing each by the sound of his
voice.
So too the woods interested her, though she had never penetrated
them very far, because the woods were confining and she loved the
open where one could see and run in all directions. Yet she loved the
trees because these new emotions which had mysteriously come to
her made her more observant than she had been. She realised more
fully than ever before that woods and plains and skies had moods in
each of which they were different, and these revelations broadening
her outlook upon her surroundings made her, in a way, more capable
of joy.
To White-black she was a puzzle. Yielding to her desire to be alone
and interesting himself in other friends, he nevertheless kept an eye
on her. There came a period in which he missed her entirely. Day
after day, he went looking for her and then one day he found her in
the woods, on an open grassy spot, cut off from the plains by a
small pond and a thin wall of poplars. She was licking a small black
colt that was trying very hard to stand on its long, shaky legs.
White-black was so glad to see her he began to neigh excitedly
and caper about the water’s edge. Then, wading across the pond, he
ran toward her; but she sprang between him and her baby with an
angry whinny, ears down, eyes glowing and her lips curling
threateningly. He stopped a few paces from her and whinnied
placatingly; but she threatened him again and he was afraid to
approach. He gazed at her from where he was for a few minutes,
then like a man who, failing to understand, shrugs his shoulders, he
lowered his head and began to graze, looking up occasionally to see
if she had changed her attitude in any way. At last, discouraged, he
walked to the pond, took a long drink, waded across and
disappeared.
For several days Queen kept to herself in her own little pasture in
the woods. She knew just where the herd was and what they were
doing at all times for she watched them almost as anxiously as she
watched over her little son. Her baby grew stronger every day,
spending most of his time romping about the limited space, learning
to use his awkward legs; and as he grew stronger, the desire to
return to the herd began to make Queen restless.
At last she led the little fellow carefully around the pond, but just
as she reached the open space she saw the herd gathering as if
danger threatened. She stopped short, raised her beautiful head and
with one long nervous sniff took in the whole situation.
Man again!
She could not see the horseman, but she heard the faint, far away
patter of hoofs and the scent of man trickled through the air. She
turned about and looked at her little one who was innocently
indifferent to what worried her and extremely interested in the open
space of which, being behind her, he had caught but a glimpse. She
knew that if she attempted to join the herd and fly with them, he
could not follow her. She could hear, as she tried to decide what to
do, the sudden clamour of hoof-beats as the herd broke into a race
for safety. She did not even turn to see them go. With utmost haste
she glided under cover.
She was not content with what safety the little pasture offered. As
if she had been a creature of the woods, she picked her way through
thorny shrubs and under heavy branches, till she came to a secluded
spot that satisfied her and there she lay down to regain her
composure.
For almost a week she lived like a deer, hiding in the woods and
coming out by night to graze and to seek the herd which she hoped
would return. Then as the days went by and she had come upon no
trace of man in the air of the open prairies, she ceased going back
into the woods, and divided her time between her baby, feeding,
and looking wistfully and hopefully over hill and hollow for her lost
companions, calling, calling, calling till the solitudes echoed with the
anguish in her heart.
Her interest in the small living things that went about the daily
business of their little lives revived and the anxious searching of the
plains often gave way to an absorbed study of her little neighbours.
She came upon a mother duck, one day, who was waddling down
the old buffalo trail with a brood of tiny little ducklings, only a few
yards away from her. Queen slackened her pace when she saw that
the mother duck was getting excited, and watched them. The old
duck walked on as rapidly as she could, turning her head from side
to side as she scrutinised Queen first with one eye and then with the
other, and though she did not seem to consider her a very grave
danger she called her little ones and swerved off the path. The old
duck was apparently leading them to the slough, but she hadn’t
gone very far when a lean and hungry-looking coyote shot out from
a cluster of rosebushes.
Instantly there was a frantic whir of wings and while the mother
duck flew almost upon the coyote, the little ones scattered, dropping
down under bushes or flowers or disappearing in gopher holes.
Queen was too much worried about her own baby to notice at the
time what happened to the duck. She sprang protectingly toward her
foal and then when she looked up she saw the coyote running
eagerly after the duck, who acted as if one of her wings were
broken. Flopping with one wing she cried with fright and half flew,
half ran on ahead of him. The foolish coyote thought she was
wounded and licked his chops as he ran, anticipating a good meal.
 The old duck appeared to be losing; but always just as the coyote
was about to seize her she flew off with a cry. Thus she led him far
away and out of sight. But before Queen had started off again for
the slough, she saw the anxious mother duck come flying from the
opposite direction. Queen turned from her to where the coyote had
disappeared wondering whether he was coming back. The joyous
peeping of the little brood who appeared in all directions at the first
call of their mother, reassured her and she followed them down to
the pond.
The duck and the little ones set sail as soon as they touched the
water, and paddled away triumphantly to the centre of the slough
where among the rushes no foolish coyote could threaten them. The
lesson of duck wisdom impressed itself deeply on Queen’s mind in a
series of pictures, and she sensed acutely the trick the duck had
played upon the coyote. She hated the coyote because she feared
him. The very sight of him made her uncomfortable and she did not
let the little one out of her sight for an instant. Even when she
drank, the image of the beast would come into her mind and
between sips she would raise her head and stare all around her to
make sure that he hadn’t come back; for from that time on, she
seemed to expect him to show up at any moment.
Long as the days were at this time of the year, they succeeded
each other rapidly and each day added to the weight of loneliness
on Queen’s heart. Ducks came in great numbers, returning from
their sojourns into the land of motherhood with flourishing broods.
Gophers appeared everywhere. The saucy little fellows would sit up
on their haunches a yard away from Queen’s head and defy her with
their queer little barks, which betrayed much more fear than
defiance. The colt would look at them with his large, round eyes,
sometimes making an attempt to approach them but as soon as he
came too near they fled. Coyotes began to show themselves more
and more often, and every time Queen came upon one, even the
clear memory of the duck playing her trick could not prevent her
heart from throbbing with fear.
 A variety of flowers appeared, one kind giving way to another, and
the sloughs on the open began to shrink daily. The woods retained
their ponds, cool and clear, and in the darker corners, among the tall
poplars, there were still shrunken drifts of snow.
In spite of the abundance of food and water, in spite of her
growing interest in her baby who played about her in perfect
contentment, and played more and more delightfully, Queen’s
longing for her companions reached overwhelming proportions and
at last she started away from those solitudes in search of the herd.
For several days she travelled toward the east along the wall of
the woods. She came to where the woods ended and a vast treeless
plain stretched away beyond vision. From the pointed end of the
woods, an old, partially overgrown buffalo trail cut diagonally across
the prairie, running comparatively straight southeast. There she
remained for a few days as if unable to decide which way to go.
Then, one day, when she had followed the buffalo trail for several
miles she came upon signs of the herd. This puzzled her, for
experience had taught her not to go south; yet here was
unmistakable evidence that they had gone south; and they were her
goal. Despite her disinclination to go in that direction, she went on
eagerly, moving each day as far as her colt would go without
protest, and resting when he refused to go any farther.
One evening, long after the woods had faded out of sight, when
her baby balked at the daily increase in the distance she urged him
to make and deliberately lay down on the path, she saw what
seemed to be two horses, grazing. Queen broke the stillness with an
impassioned whinnying that puzzled the little fellow. The fact that
she was standing with her back to him and whinnying so frantically
interested him. That she might be calling to any one but himself was
entirely beyond his experience. Feeling that she was looking for him,
he got up and sidled up to her, touching her neck with his little nose.
Queen bent down and covered him with caresses; but to his dismay,
she soon returned to her calling, keeping her head high and looking
away into the shadows.
 The darkness obliterated the two horses and Queen, unable to
stand still, started away again, the little fellow complaining
plaintively as he lumbered after her. When, however, he lay down
once more, she yielded and there they spent the night.
Her night’s rest was a troubled one. What with other emotions
tormenting her, there was a strong scent of man in the air that kept
her awake and watchful. When dawn came at last, she saw the two
horses, still grazing but much nearer to her. Beyond them she saw
two black mounds, like malignant growths on the body of the plains.
In these mounds, she knew, lived man.
She was afraid to go any closer to the mounds so she called loudly
to the two horses who finally responded by starting in her direction.
When she saw them coming, she hastened to meet them, despite
her fear. She whinnied loudly as she went and when the foremost of
the two horses replied to her, his voice sounded familiar. Who it was
she did not know but she started toward him on a gallop and as
soon as she touched his nose, she remembered the old sorrel work-
horse of the spring lake in the bowl-like valley of her childhood.
Where he had been, how he had got up there, what he was doing,
these were facts Queen could not find out, nor did she experience
any desire to find out. Life to her was somewhat of an abysmal night
with beautiful, star-like gleams of understanding. The past to her
was an ally of death not to be thought about and the future became
important only when it turned into the present. The sole value of the
impressions that she carried in her memory lay in the help they
offered for the understanding of the impressions that the present
was making and Queen never wept over them.
There was the old sorrel before her! The memory of what he had
been to her, inundated by floods of time and other experiences, had
gone out like the stars at dawn. But now, certain odours and sounds
and qualities too delicate for words, like the evening that follows
every dawn, brought the stars back to her sky and she strove to
express the almost inexpressible satisfaction she experienced.
 The other horse was a stranger and so Queen was wary of him.
She sniffed noses with him suspiciously and kept away, refusing to
allow him to go near her colt whereas the old sorrel sniffed all over
him without her protest.
But the pleasure she derived from the momentary satisfaction of
the longing for companionship, inadequate as it was, had its price.
Her excitement was so great that she did not notice the coming of
another horse with a man on his back, till he was already
dangerously close. With an anxious call to her little one she dashed
away in the direction from which she had come. The two horses
went with her.
It was not long however before she saw the man through the
corner of her eye, urging his straining horse, apparently to get
ahead of her. Queen was not running as fast as she could, for she
knew that her baby could not keep up with her. But the sight of the
man at the side of her bewildered her. She leaped out of his way,
leaving him a hundred feet behind only to realise at once that her
colt was not with her. She swung off to the side and turned to see
the man driving the old sorrel, his companion, and her own colt off
towards the black mounds.
Her eyes fairly bulging out of her head, her lips frothing, Queen
leaped back after him, calling frantically to him as she ran. As soon
as the little thing heard her, he turned to run back, but instantly the
man threw a rope and caught him round the neck, hurling him to
the ground. The two horses ran on toward the mounds, but the man
stopped, dismounted and battled with her frightened, crying baby.
The desire to hurt was foreign to Queen’s nature, but when she
saw her foal on the ground struggling with the man who was
apparently getting the better of it, she ran toward the monster with
murder in her heart. The man saw her coming and with the other
end of his long rope he struck her head a terrible blow. She jumped
back in terror. Before she had aroused enough courage to make
another attack, the man had completely tied the little thing so that it
could not move a limb and, mounting his horse again, he rode away.
 Queen rushed to her little son with a sense of relief but that
feeling soon gave way to one of painful solicitude. She had her baby
and the man had left, but the baby was helplessly tied. It was
changed with a change like death. The monstrous two-legged
creature had cast a spell upon it. She ran around it frantically, called
to it encouragingly, licked it tenderly, then ran off a few paces,
urging it to exert itself and follow her.
Then to her horror, she saw the man coming back. This time he
had the sorrel and his companion with him. She grew desperate. She
bit at the rope with nervous haste, trying to drag her colt away with
her, but her efforts resulted only in hurting it and at the first cry of
pain, she stopped. Until the man was so near that he struck her with
the long binder whip which he had brought with him, she would not
leave her baby and then she only kept out of reach of the whip.
Finally, in desperation, unable to decide upon anything that she
might try to do, she stood and watched; while the man was busy,
preparing the ropes on the stone boat which the two horses had
been dragging after them.
One thing at once hurt and puzzled her, and that was the
nonresistance of the old sorrel. There he stood covered with the
bewildering straps with their glittering buckles, making no attempt to
run from the man nor to help her. He did not even call to her.
She tried to make out how the man succeeded in holding the two
horses though he was not even looking at them. Her deliberations,
however, were suddenly interrupted by the man’s leaving the stone
boat and going to her little one. When she saw him drag the colt to
the stone boat, she went mad again and rushed at him with bared
teeth; but as soon as he straightened himself and turned to her, she
fled.
Her hatred included the old sorrel when she saw him start away
dragging her baby off. She sprang at him from the side and nipped
him savagely. The old fellow got frightened and backed up almost
stepping upon the helpless little colt on the stone boat. The man got
angry. He jumped from the stone boat and with his long whip struck
her with all his strength squarely upon her tender nose. The pain
took her breath away. She reared on her hind legs in a fit of agony,
then dashed out of reach, and the man drove off with her colt.
Bewildered by her anguish, she ran after him, rending the air with
her cries, zigzagging from one side to the other. When the man
reached one of the black mounds, his sod barn, Queen remained at
a distance, running around the place in a wide circle and running
steadily as if she found relief in activity.
The man disappeared in the black mound, but when Queen
ventured nearer, for fear that she would again attack the old sorrel,
the man poked his head out of a hole in the wall and yelled at her;
and she turned and ran. When she started for the barn again, the
man came out altogether. She was forty rods away when she turned
and as she did so she heard the strong, healthy call from her colt,
muffled by the confinement of the barn; but apparently free as if he
were untied. She replied with all her strength and ran toward the
barn, stopping a hundred feet away and watching the man, as he
fastened the barn-door securely.
She saw him unhook the horses from the stone boat and then
drive them over to a queer-looking instrument that lay near the
house. Then she saw them start away with the plow dragging
behind the horses. They were coming toward her so she loped away
to the right. When she stopped, she saw that they were not
following her but were going off toward the south. Considerably
relieved she watched them go till they were lost from view behind a
hill.
She trotted up to the first of the two mounds, the man’s small,
sod house and cautiously sniffed about for a few minutes to make
sure that there was no other man about. The odours there were
unendurable, but everything was motionless, and at a call from her
little one, she ran to the barn. For a while she ran round and round
it as she called, then suddenly she spied his little head through a
hole in the wall. She attempted to thrust her head in. She just
managed to touch him with her hot lips, but the fear of the evil-
smelling barn forced her to withdraw her head, in spite of her desire
to keep touching him. She had the feeling of being trapped herself
and immediately loped away again. A thorough examination of the
house and the plains, however, assured her that she was still free
and that the man was not returning.
Again and again she thrust her head into the hole, and despite the
nauseating odours she prolonged her caresses every succeeding
time that she put her head through the window. Yet she realised
that that was not giving her back her baby. At the same time the
touch of his beloved head intensified the fire in her heart and she
began desperately to seek some way of getting him out.
There was a pile of manure back of the barn which sloped upward
till it almost reached the flat, straw roof. She ran around the barn in
an attempt to find some opening and every time she came to the
heap of manure she was forced to enlarge the circle she was
making. With a look in every direction, to make sure the man was
not returning, she suddenly started up the pile of manure and
carefully stepped upon the roof of the barn.
She had only taken a step forward, though, when she felt the roof
giving way under her feet. This frightened her and she attempted to
turn back much too hastily. Before she could get back to the pile of
dirt, half the roof together with a part of the wall caved in, dropping
her down into the barn on top of the débris. She was very badly
frightened. Without stopping even to look for her colt, she leaped
over the remaining portion of the wall taking half of it with her.
She did not turn to see what she had accomplished but fled in
terror over the fields. When her courage returned, she looked back
and happily discovered that still the man had not returned, nor was
there any other sign of danger. On the other hand her little colt was
now standing near the broken wall, his head and shoulder sticking
up above it, calling frantically. She then hurried back with all her
speed, caressing him as if she hadn’t seen him for weeks, and
urging him, in her dumb way, to come out.
 He tried very hard to get over the barrier, but could not make it.
To show him how to do it, she jumped in again and as she jumped
she knocked another layer of sod into the barn. Then as she was
about to leap out a second time she heard a familiar whinny behind
her. Turning nervously, she made out in the gloom of the other end
of the barn, two horses, one of them her mate. Poor White-black
was standing listlessly in a cage-like stall, securely tied to the
manger. His voice was weaker than it had ever been, and his calling
seemed strangely half-hearted. A great desire to touch his nose
came over her, though the fear of the barn, the frightfully
nauseating odours and the slippery, dirty floor, all urged her to fly
before some mysterious force should seize her and hold her there.
All she was able to do was to call to him from where she stood
trembling near the opening in the wall, ready to jump at the first
sign of danger. The sound of her own voice in the confines of the
gloomy barn terrified her. With a single bound she leaped over the
broken wall, taking so much more of it with her, lowering it so
decidedly that the little fellow was able to climb over it.
With a last heartfelt call to White-Black, appealing to him to follow
her as he used to follow her in the days that had gone, Queen raced
once more toward the haven of the north, ran against all feeble
protest of her little son, ran till the loathsome mounds vanished from
the undulating plains.
In a hollow where a spring slough had turned much of the earth
into mud and then had partially dried up, Queen drank, fed her
baby; and, because he would go no further, she grazed while he
rested. She felt very unsafe and gazed incessantly and fearfully
toward the hilltop behind her. Two images she expected to see
coming over the brow every time she looked up. She expected and
feared to see the man coming after her and she expected and hoped
to see White-black. Neither came, but both haunted her stormy mind
and allowed it no peace.
Fear urged her to be off and away but every time she started, her
little fellow refused to go with her. He would raise his head painfully
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