WAR HORSE
A boy named Albert Naracott saw a mother horse giving birth
to a baby horse in a farm. After a few minutes the baby horse could walk and
run together with his mother.
A few months later, the young horse was separated from its
mother when the farm owner decided to sell it in an auction in the market. It
was a sad moment to see the young horse refuse to leave its mother.
Mr. Narcotti saw this horse in an auction and thought that
this was a handsome and strong horse. He won the auction by paying 30 guineas,
a three folds price of the usual horse.
When he took the horse home, his wife scolded him. She said
that 30 guneas was too much for a horse. At that time Albert came and saw the
horse. He was excited to see that this was the same horse he fell in love with
a few months before. The horse that the birth he saw in the farm. He promised
he would train the horse.
He played with the horse, talked to him and trained him to
come when he called him the way an Indian called his horse- using a sound produced
by one’s mouth while putting together both of your palms as if you are praying
in front of your mouth. First he horse didn’t understand but after a few
attempts it worked. The horse recognized the calling of its master.
Meanwhile Mr. Narcotti had to pay his landowner . He had
been given a certain time to pay the rent of the land, if he didn’t want to
lose the land, he had to start ploughing the stony land which the neighbors
thought impossible to do.
With the help of the young Narcotti and the horse, Joey-
that’s what Albert named the horse- they could plough and plant the land with
turnips. They grew so nicely until one night a heavy rain ruined the growing
turnips and destroyed their only hope to pay off the land.
The time he had to pay the rent of the land had come. Mr.
Narcotti decided to sell the horse to pay the rent. Albert was surprised when
he couldn’t find the horse in the barn. He ran all the way to the market to
stop the father to sell the horse. But it was too late the horse had just been
sold to a commander of English soldiers by 35 guineas. Albert tried to cancel
the deal by asking the commander to return the horse. With a pleading face he
asked his father to return the money and promised that after he got a job he
would pay off his father. But the commander kindly told Albert that he would
take good care of Joey and promised if possible return to him when the war was
over.
Joey was trained by the army horse trainer and turned out to
be the fastest horse in the army. The commander was proud of the horse. He still
remembered Albert who sadly sold Joey to him so
he wrote a letter to Albert to make
him proud of Joey. He also drew him a picture of Joey as a present.
Unfortunatelly the commander was killed in action when
fighting the Germans and all living horses were taken by Germans’ army,
including Joey.
Gunther who was a horse keeper in army knew how good Joey
was. He, not wanting to let his brother to die in the war, wanted to kidnap his
stubborn brother, who was only 14 years old from the army’s march. He used Joey
and another horse to kidnap his brother.
After kidnapping the brother, both of them hid in an upstair
room of a windmill. They also hid the horses there, downstair. A few hours
later there was a bright-blinding- light shining the windmill’s window. The
door was opened and guns were pointed to them and they shot them for running
away from the army. The horses were safe.
The next day Emillie, the grandaughter of the owner of the
windmill, found the horses. She was excited and treated the horses well. She
trained the horses to jump and treated them as her friends to which she told
her problems and her love stories.
One day the German army knew about the horses and took the
horses away for war. Emilie was devastated as her new friends were taken away
from her by force.
Joey saw how other horses died, exhausted from being forced
to carry heavy artilery of the German’a army. Many were shot because they were sick. On one
march Joey’s friend was dying because of exhaustion. This made the Germany who
cared for the horses felt pity, he brought Joey and his friend to rest. How sad
to see Joey’s friend fell down and slowly died... Suddenly there was a sound of
boom... This made Joey panicked and he ran away frantically from the Germany...
Ran and ran in the middle of rain of gunshoots and kicked everything in his way
and kept running until he was trap in the barbed wired fences that separated
Germany’s and English’s demarcations.
One English soldier saw Joey, felt pity and took courage to
save the horse by crossing the demarcation lines while flagging the white flag,
hoping that the Germany would not hit him. He was shot 1 or two times but
missed. Finally the Germany realized that this soldier came to save the horse,
not to sneak to their camp. One of Germanies was even lending a hand to save
the wounded horse.
After being rescued the horse was kept in English’s camp.
The condition was not so good and the doctor of the army suggested that the
horse be killed for fear of developing
tetanus from the wound. The soldier who rescued the horse was
dissapointed after losing the argument with the army’s doctor. In front of the
crowd of soldiers, the doctor was ready to shot Joey dead....
Three years before this happened, Albert volunteered himself
to join the army. He fought bravely and saved one of his friends there. But in
one occassion the camp was attacked and there was gas... He was safe but lost
his sight and he had to rest in another camp, the same camp where Joey was
taken.
Hearing that there was a horse taken to camp, he
instictively remember Joey, and moved to call him by whistling the way an
Indian called his horse. He told the others that he wanted to see the horse...
The crowd gave him a way while he was walking toward the horse while making the
whistling voice.
Joey recognized the calling, turned his head to the calling.
This made the doctor surprised and curious, so he let the horse walk toward
Albert. And once he was close enough, Albert patted him, hug his head and spoke
to him gently. The crowd cheered.
The calling was not enough to prove that Joey belonged to
Albert. Albert had to give other characteristics that would match with the
horse. Out of memory,Albert, still with the eyes blindfolded, mentioned that
the was a white spot in the middle of the forehead of the horse and at the
bottom of all of the four legs there were white colors.
So the doctor wiped the dirty forehead of the horse and saw
the white spot, exactly at the location that Albert mentioned. Then a soldier
carried a bucket of water to wash the muddy legs of the horse. One by one the
legs were washed and the white colors appeared and proved that the horse really
belonged to Albert. Albert explained that the horse had joined the war because
a commander bought it from him. So the doctor made a decision that the horse
had to be treated and healed as one of the soldiers.
After the war, the English army decided that all horses
should be auctioned, including Albert’s horse. It saddened Albert because he
didn’t have enough money to buy back the horse. Many soldiers gave their money
to help Albert to buy back Joey.
The grandpa of
Emillie heard about the auction and saw that one of the horses was Joey. The
horse that Emillie fell in love with. He wanted to bring happiness to Emillie
and he bid the highest price for Joey. Albert, even with all od his money and
the donations, lost the bid.
Joey was given to Emmilie’s grandfather. Albert, who was sad, tried to persuade the old
man to take all of his money and returned the horse to him in addition of the
extra money that would be paid later when Albert earned money from his future
job. The old man first refused, but after listening to the story of the horse
and the bound that existed between them, he gave the horse back to Albert and
he even asked Albert to keep his money.... Joey was back with Albert. Both of
them returned home to Albert’s parents who were waiting anxiously their son,
who returned from the war safely
and miraculously brought
Joey back with him...
THE END
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