Black Beauty

The first place that I can remember was a large, pleasant meadow. There was a pond of clear water in it, and some shady trees grew over the pond. On one side there was a field. On the other side we could see our master's house by the road.

When I was very young, I lived on my mother's milk because I could not eat grass yet. In the daytime I ran by her side, and at night I lay down close to her. When it was hot, we stood by the pond in the shade of the trees. When it was cold, we had a nice warm shed near the wood.

As soon as I was old enough to eat grass, my mother went out to work in the daytime. She came back in the evening.

There were six young colts in the meadow with me. They were older than I was, and some were nearly as big as grown-up horses. I used to run with them, and we had great fun. We galloped round and round the field as fast as we could go. Sometimes our games were rather rough, because the other colts often bit and kicked.