When heavy harness was placed upon her body, Queen showed her displeasure but her impulses. The collar and the hames choked and oppressed her and the blinders on her and frightened her. But for something they did which they did not do for her sake at all, Queen would have fought as hard as she had fought when the saddle was first placed upon her. They had led her out and tied her to a wheel between two of three horses and she found herself next to the little bay . A few moments of noses and Queen would have endured almost anything rather than be taken away from her old friend again. She had been harnessed first and Queen was willing to tolerate anything she tolerated so long as she could be there with her; and the farmer wondered at the constant whinnying that went on between the two. All the while, the big horse on the other side of Queen and the big horse on the other side of the bay mare stood with their heads at the same level, motionless, like the machines that they were, awaiting orders to move.
They were to a and ordered to move and Queen’s nerves with the strangeness of the situation. Every move she made resulted in some disagreeable pull and the feeling of being trapped, of being held in on every side was fast arousing her and the desire to rebel. But not only did the weight of the thing they were dragging that desire, but the horses on both sides of her seemed to beat into her soul, with the beating of their , the utter hopelessness of showing resentment or attempting to rebel.
When they reached the wheat fields, the thing grew many times heavier, many times harder to pull and the noise it made was distracting to Queen. But the morning was ; the creatures of her own kind beside her gave her the feeling of having companionship; and though her muscles found pulling most , they were still fresh from a night’s rest. When the morning wore along toward noon her strength was well nigh and the struggle to keep from going under, by the whip, her soul with agony. The day was hot and her sides dripped with . The new harness rubbed her skin in a thousand places and made her very bones ache. The dust of the fields and the particles of broken straw filled the air she breathed and settled down in her nose and eyes.
When her aching muscles began to wear out and the pain she felt frightened her, she tried to lag a bit but the eye of her owner soon discovered her lagging and there was a threatening cry of “Dora!” and the long whip came down upon her haunches without mercy.
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CHAPTER XII THE STRENGTH OF THE WEAK
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CHAPTER XIV ONLY JUSTICE HAD BEEN DONE
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