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Black Beauty

Name: Black Beauty
Author: Anna Sewell

by Anna Sewell · complete original text

49 chapters
60,396 words
about 462 min
animal story

Black Beauty tells his own story, from a happy young horse in a green meadow to a hard-working cab horse in London. He meets kind masters and cruel ones, and he never forgets his mother's words: always do your work well and be gentle.

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The first place that I can well remember was a large pleasant meadow with a pond of clear water in it. Some shady trees leaned over it, and rushes and water-lilies grew at the deep end. Over the hedge on one side we looked into a plowed field, and on the other we looked over a gate at our master's house, which stood by the roadside. At the top of the meadow was a grove of fir trees, and at the bottom a running brook overhung by a steep bank.

While I was young I lived upon my mother's milk, as I could not eat grass. In the daytime I ran by her side, and at night I lay down close by her. When it was hot we used to stand by the pond in the shade of the trees, and when it was cold we had a nice warm shed near the grove.