Black Beauty

the door. Miss Ellen was going to try me, and Green went with her. I soon found that she was a good driver, and she seemed pleased with my paces. I heard Joe telling her about me, and that he was sure I was Squire Gordon’s old Black Beauty.

When we returned the other sisters came out to hear how I had behaved myself. She told them what she had just heard, and said, “I shall certainly write to Mrs. Gordon, and tell her that her favorite horse has come to us. How pleased she will be!”

After this I was driven every day for a week or so, and as I appeared to be quite safe, Miss Lavinia at last ventured out in the small close carriage. After this it was quite decided to keep me and call me by my old name of Black Beauty.

I have now lived in this happy place a whole year. Joe is the best and kindest of grooms. My work is easy and pleasant, and I feel my strength and spirits all coming back again. Mr. Thoroughgood said to Joe the other day:

“In your place he will last till he is twenty years old⁠—perhaps more.”

Willie always speaks to me when he can, and treats me as his special friend. My ladies have promised that I shall never be sold, and so I have nothing to fear; and here my story ends. My troubles are all over, and I am at home; and often before I am quite awake, I fancy I am still in the orchard at Birtwick, standing with my old friends under the apple trees.

Endnotes

1. A few years since the annual charge for a cab license was very much reduced, and the difference between the six and seven days’ cabs was abolished. ↩

Colophon

Black Beauty
was published in 1911 by
Anna Sewell.

This ebook was produced for
Standard Ebooks
by
Laura Klappenbach,
and is based on a transcription produced in 2006 by
A. Light, Linda Bowser, and David Widger
for
Project Gutenberg
and on digital scans available at the
HathiTrust Digital Library.

The cover page is adapted from
Adriaan van der Hoop’s Trotter “De Vlugge” (The Fast One) in a Meadow,
a painting completed in 1828 by
Anthony Oberman.
The cover and title pages feature the
League Spartan and Sorts Mill Goudy
typefaces created in 2014 and 2009 by
The League of Moveable Type.

The first edition of this ebook was released on
November 27, 2019, 10:22 p.m.
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