\'After that,he often came to see me, but a man called Joe went on training me.He was quiet and thoughtful and I soon learned what he wanted.
\'After my training,\'Ginger went on,\'I was bought by a dealer to match another horse of my colour.But then we were sold to a man in London who drove us with a bearing rein—a rein to hold our heads up unnaturally high and to keep them there,for hours and hours,until the pain was terrible.We had to wear two bits instead of one,and mine was so sharp that it made my mouth bleed.Sometimes we waited for hours while our master or mistress was at parties or the theatre, and if we weren\'t patient,the driver would whip us.\'
\'Didn\'t your master care about you at all?\'I said.
\'Only about how we looked,\'replied Ginger.\'He knew very little about horses.The driver told him I had a bad temper but would soon get used to the bearing rein.I was willing to work and learn,but they were so cruel that it made me angry.Then I broke away from the carriage one day,and that was the end of that place.
\'I was sold to another man,but he had a groom as bad-tem-pered as Samson.He hit me across the legs with his stable brush if I didn\'t move quickly.I hated him, and one day when he made me angry,I bit him!He never came into my stall af-ter that, and I was soon sold again.
\'A dealer heard of me and said he thought he knew one place where I should do well.“It\'s wrong for a fine horse to go bad like that,”he said.And I was brought here,not long before you came.Of course,it\'s very different here.But who knows how long it will last? I\'ve decided that all men are my natural enemies.\'
I was sorry for Ginger, but as the weeks went on, she be-came happier and more gentle.
\'I do believe Ginger is getting quite fond of me,\'James said one day.
\'She\'ll be as good as Black Eeauty one day,\'replied John.\'Kindness is all she needs,poor thing!\'
3 金兒的故事
我還想要什么呢?自由!在我生命的頭4年,我曾擁有那么廣闊的田野,我可以在那兒全速奔馳——沒(méi)有韁繩,沒(méi)有嚼口,也沒(méi)有眼罩?,F在,除了有活干的時(shí)候,我得日夜呆在馬廄里,有時(shí)約翰帶我出去的時(shí)候,我覺(jué)得自己是那么強壯有力,充滿(mǎn)生機,我按捺不住地想跳躍,想舞蹈。
“靜一點(diǎn)兒,伙計!”他會(huì )說(shuō)。
我們一出村,他就會(huì )讓我撒開(kāi)了跑上幾里。有的馬夫會(huì )懲罰過(guò)度興奮的馬,約翰不。他知道怎么能只用聲音來(lái)控制我,我真喜歡他。
有時(shí)在田野里,我們可以盡情享受一兩小時(shí)自由。這時(shí)往往是在夏天的周日,因為馬車(chē)在周日不外出。那真叫妙不可言。青草踏上去涼爽而柔軟,連空氣都是甜的。我們可以或飛跑或臥倒或是滾來(lái)滾去,隨心所欲。
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