A Danish Parsonage Part 4

This speech was not forgotten for a long time, and Karl and Axel teased their sister with perpetual questions as to whether they or she was not doing something or other too well. If Karl caught no trout, he explained to his sister that he was afraid of fishing too well. If Axel had dirty hands, his explanation was that he was afraid of washing them too well.

John Hardy had visited the Gudenaa within walking distance, or boating distance, and he wished to make longer expeditions from the parsonage.

He inspected several of the farms near, and at last arranged with farmer Niels Jacobsen to rent stabling for three horses. He then wrote the following letter, addressed to a groom at Hardy Place:--

"Robert Garth,

"I want you to bring Buffalo to me in Denmark. The horse is to be taken to Harwich, and thence on board the steamer for Esbjerg. The steamers are fitted up with stables for horses, and there will be no difficulty. When you come to Esbjerg, take train to Horsens, where I will meet you. A telegram must be sent me to Vandstrup Praestegaard, to say when you will arrive at Horsens. Bring two hunting saddles and bridles, and some of the snaffle bits that I like.

"Show this letter to the steward, and he will let you have what money he thinks is necessary for your journey.

"Yours truly,

"John Hardy."

In little more than a week, Buffalo and Robert Garth were in Niels Jacobsen's stables.

Buffalo was a good English-bred horse, a good jumper, with a chest like a wall, and hind-quarters up to weight. Niels Jacobsen and his neighbours had collected and criticized.

"Gild bevars! sikken en Hest!" ["G.o.d preserve us, what a horse!"] said Niels, sucking away at his pipe, with a chorus echoing the same words from his neighbours. There was no doubt of their approval, and Buffalo had a succession of visitors and admirers for days.

Hardy had communicated to Pastor Lindal that he intended to have one of his horses and a groom from England, and had great difficulty in preventing the Pastor turning out his own small stable to make room for Buffalo; but this Hardy would not allow. Robert Garth lodged at Jacobsen's, and Hardy, with that thoughtfulness he always had for those about him, arranged for his man's meals and sleeping quarters as nearly as possible to an English groom's notions.

"Well, Bob," said Hardy, "you will shake down after a bit; but what I want you to do is, to help me to pick out a pair of light carriage horses from here. I have seen a lot, and you will have plenty to choose from. They will suit my mother, and I wish to take them over as a present to her."

"I have seen some of them Danish horses," said Robert Garth, "and not half bad horses either; but it is the infernal lingo. They keep smoking them big wood pipes, and when they don't smoke they chews, and then they spits."

"Where did you see any Danish horses?" asked Hardy.

"At Sir Charles'; he had a pair, hardly up to fifteen hands, but very pretty steppers, with a thinish mane, a trifle small below the knee,"

said Garth.

"That's the very thing," said Hardy.

As soon as it was known that the priest's Englishman wanted to buy two Jutland horses, plenty offered; and Karl and Axel were intensely interested in the trial of the horses, which went on in a rough piece of land close to the parsonage.

When the horses were brought up, Hardy mounted one, and Robert Garth criticized. Hardy put the horse through its paces, and if his judgment was not favourable, it was declined; but if doubtful. Garth rode it, and Hardy looked on. A couple of horses were thus selected, and both had Robert Garth's unqualified approval.

"They are both as handsome as paint, and as sound as bells," said Garth.

"Are you a horse-dealer?" asked Pastor Lindal, of Hardy, one evening.

"No, certainly not," replied Hardy.

"You have shown every qualification for it," said the Pastor.

"Possibly," said Hardy. "I see I have done this also too well. I only wanted the horses for my mother's carriage. She likes an open light carriage, and it is difficult to procure really good horses in England of a suitable size. The horses I have bought will suit her exactly, if we have good luck with them; that is, that they turn out well, and we have no accident with them. I shall buy a light four-wheel carriage at Horsens, and my groom will drive them, and we shall then see if it be necessary to discard either or both, before they are taken to England."

"But why did you send for a horse from England?" said Pastor Lindal, to whom a horse was a horse and a cow was a cow.

"I fear because I like a good horse," replied Hardy. "Your Jutland horses are not adapted to the saddle, except for lady's hacks, or light carriage work; my English horse would jump the ditches that abound in your Danish fields, and would, for instance, jump your garden wall."

"That I am sure no horse can," said the Pastor, decidedly.

"Does he mean, father," said Frken Helga, "that his horse can jump our garden wall?"

"Yes," said Hardy; "it is scarcely five feet. But will you promise, Frken Helga, that if my horse does jump the wall, that you will not say that the horse does it too well? It is not me, but the horse that jumps the wall."

Helga looked annoyed at the reference made to her saying that he sang and played too well for any one to follow after him, but she said nothing.

Karl and Axel had listened. They too thought it impossible; but they believed in Hardy.

"Well, Karl," said Hardy, "don't you believe in me and the English horse?"

"No," said Karl. "A horse cannot jump the garden wall by himself, much more with a man on his back; no horse could do it. But I believe you can do anything."

"Well, Herr Pastor," said Hardy, "I have no one who believes in me or my horse. Frken Helga regards me with suspicion; and no one in Jutland appears to believe more than they see."

"Yes; but it is impossible," said Pastor Lindal.

The next day after breakfast, Buffalo and one of the Danish horses were taken to the parsonage by Robert Garth. Buffalo had an English saddle on, and looked fully recovered from his journey to Denmark, and fit for anything. The Pastor, his daughter, and his two boys came out to see the English horse. Frken Helga had not seen it before, and it struck her as being the handsomest horse she had ever seen; and she observed the respect the English groom showed Hardy.

"What do you think of the oats, Bob?" said Hardy.

"First-rate," said Garth, touching his hat; "they have picked Buffalo up wonderful, and he is fit to go anywhere."

Hardy mounted his horse. His mother had sent over his hunting breeches, and when mounted, the Pastor was struck with the manly figure of the quiet-mannered Englishman.

"The horse will not take even such a jump as your garden wall," said Hardy, "in cold blood. I will give him a gallop down the field below, and then bring him up and jump the wall. You will see the grand spread of his stride as he gallops."

Hardy rode like an English country gentleman accustomed to the saddle, and the great wide strides taken by Buffalo even the Pastor observed with astonishment. Suddenly Hardy turned and came at the garden wall, with Buffalo well in hand, who rose to the jump and cleared it easily, and out through a break in the shrubbery over the wall at the other side.

Hardy rode quietly in through the entrance gate and dismounted. It was clear, by the demeanour of the English groom, that he saw nothing unusual in what had pa.s.sed; but it was very different with the Danish family. The boys cheered, but Frken Helga had disappeared.

"If you were not accustomed to do this," said the Pastor, "I should consider it was not right to risk so good a horse and your own limbs.

A fall must be dangerous to you and your horse."

"Yes; a fall would be, and is," said Hardy. "I have broken my arm and a collar-bone by falls when hunting."

"Now, Herr Pastor," added Hardy, "you will see the difference between my English horse and one of the best horses we could buy here."

"He can't jump a yard, master," said Garth; "it is no use trying him."

Hardy mounted the Danish horse, and the difference was apparent in pace and action.

"Bob," said Hardy, "they are no use for saddle horses, except for ladies; but they will do well for what we bought them."

"Right you are, master!" said Garth, as Hardy remounted Buffalo, and went for a ride.