Some of the very farmers who had once poked fun at the Morgan’s long tail were now trying to snip a few hairs for a souvenir. “I always knew he’d be a go-ahead horse!” they crowed.
Then, right there on the college green, questions began popping like sparks from a dry log. Who is the Justin Morgan horse, anyway? Who was his sire? Who was his dam?
In the midst of the din a white-bearded veteran from the Revolutionary War shouted for silence. “You folks be too young to remember,” he bellowed, “but one black night during my war a fancy English Thoroughbred of the name of True Briton was hitched at a tavern near the British lines. Then along come a Yankee, and what did he do?”
“What?” chorused the crowd.
“Why, he stole that-there British horse and raced him across the lines. And ’twas him that sired Justin Morgan!”
“Sorry to contradict you, grandpap,” a young man broke in, “but to my eye, he’s got the build of them stout little pacers from Narragansett.”
“Ye’re wrong as a pump without a handle!” chirped a little cricket of a man. “He’s a Dutch horse if ever I see one!”
“Begging your pardon,” interrupted a very old lady, “I hearn from a good source that he’s French Canadian.”
The talk seesawed back and forth—first about the little Morgan’s pedigree, then about his birthplace.
In the heat of the arguing, the shoeing smith rode up to Joel and motioned the crowd back. “Ladies and gentlemen,” he announced, “Joel Goss here is the onliest one who knows about this horse. He, my friends, can answer your questions.”
A silence came over the gathering as all eyes turned to Joel, who would rather have fought another battle than speak to such a large group. For courage he put an arm around Little Bub’s neck and twined his fingers in the glossy mane. A sprig of evergreen from the horse’s headstall fell to the ground just then, and at sight of it Joel thought of the Green Mountains and of his trip with the schoolmaster so long ago. The inheld words now came slowly, like raindrops from a tree long after the rain has ceased.
“When I was a knee-high boy,” he said, taking a deep breath, “our singing master, Justin Morgan, took me with him to visit Farmer Beane down in Springfield.”
“What’s Farmer Beane got to do with it?” the same white-bearded veteran barked out.
“Just about everything,” Joel explained. “Y’see, he owed the master a lot of money, but he didn’t have any . . . ”
“Go on!” the crowd urged. “We’re follerin’ ye.”
“Well, the farmer didn’t want to be beholden to anyone; so he gave the singing master a fine big colt named Ebenezer. And for good measure he threw in a mite of a colt called Little Bub.
“And that Little Bub . . . ” Joel paused, smiling awkwardly. “He be the one who took on the schoolmaster’s name, Justin Morgan.”
“Go on, young feller,” the old man prodded. “You’re doin’ fine.”
“Well, the schoolmaster and Farmer Beane both be dead now,” Joel said, restoring the piece of evergreen to the horse’s headstall, “and likely nobody will ever know who was this fellow’s sire and who was his dam. He was just a little work horse that cleared the fields and did what was asked of him.”
Joel’s face suddenly lit up as if he had thought of something for the first time. He spoke now to the horse, as though he were the one that mattered. “Why, come to think of it, you’re just like us, Bub. You’re American! That’s what you are. American!”
For their help the author is grateful to
WALTER B. MAHONY, great-great-grandson of JUSTIN MORGAN
FANNIE S. GOSS, granddaughter of JOEL GOSS
F. B. HILLS, Secretary, The Morgan Horse Club
Vermont Historical Society
DR. PAUL O. MCGREW, Chicago Natural History Museum
HELEN HARTNESS FLANDERS, Archivist for Vermont Traditional Music
The Chicago Public Library
Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, Vermont
St. Johnsbury Athenaeum, St. Johnsbury, Vermont
The Library of the University of Vermont
State of Vermont Reference Bureau at Montpelier
Fiske Foundation Library, Claremont, New Hampshire
The late DR. C. J. ATTIG, Head of History, North Central College
The late DAVID DANA HEWITT, Vermont pioneer
Books Consulted
Battell, Joseph, The Morgan Horse and Register, Vols. I, II, III
Beckley, Hosea, History of Vermont
Beirne, ‘Francis F., The War of 1812
Birge, Edward Bailey, History of Public School Music in the United States
Burnham, Eleanor, Justin Morgan, The Romantic History of a Horse
Cheney, Simeon, The American Singing Book
Coolidge, A. J., and Mansfield, J. B., A History and Description of New England
Crane, Charles Edward, Let Me Show You Vermont
——— Winter in Vermont
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——— Social Life in Old New England
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——— Travels in the United States in 1788
Dwight’s America, Vol. II
Earle, Alice Morse, Child Life in Colonial Days
——— Costume of Colonial Times
——— Home Life in Colonial Days
——— Stage-Coach and Tavern Days
Elsbree, Willard S., The American Teacher
Federal Writers Project, Vermont
Gilman, Daniel C., James Monroe
Gray, Carl W., Productive Horse Husbandry
Harris-Rachel, American Speech, Vol. VIII
Hall, Samuel R., History of Vermont
Harper, M. W., How to Judge Horses
Harper’s Encyclopedia of United States History, Vol. 9, “The Uniforms of the American Army”
Hemenway’s Vermont Historical Gazetteer
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Jenkins, Stephen, The Old Boston Post Road
Lathrop, Elise, Early American Inns and T†verns
Lincklaen, John, Travels in 1791 and 1792 in Pennsylvania, New York and Vermont
Linsley, D. C., A Premium Essay on Origin, History and Characteristics of Morgan Horses
Lodge, Henry Cabot, Private Correspondence of Daniel Webster
Ludlum, Daniel M., Social Ferment in Vermont, 1791-1850
Marlowe, George F., Coaching Roads of Old New England
Mencken, H. L., The American Language
Minard, Jno. S., Recollections of the Log School House Period and Sketches of Life and Customs in Pioneer Days
Moore, N. Hudson, The Old Block Book
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Muzzey, David Saville, United States of America
Parmer, Charles B., For Gold and Glory
Powis, R., Stable Directory and Groom’s Guide to the Medicine Chest
Roberts, Christopher, The Middlesex Canal, 1793-1860
Robinson, Rowland Evans, Vermont
——— Danvis Folks
Saybolt, Robert Francis, Apprenticeship and Apprenticeship Education in Colonial New England
Schouler, James, Americans of 1776
Small, Walter H., Early New England Schools
Stong, Phil, Horses and Americans
Thompson, Zadok, History of Vermont
Ticknor, Caroline, Book of Famous Horses
Tryon, R. M., Household Manufacturers in the United States, 1640-1860
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kes of New England
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Vermont of Today
Aladdin
An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division
1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10020
www.SimonandSchuster.com
Copyright © 1954 by Rand McNally & Company
Copyright renewed © 1982 by Marguerite Henry,
Morgan Dennis, and Charles Reid Dennis
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.
SIMON & SCHUSTER BOOKS FOR YOUNG READERS is a trademark of Simon & Schuster.
The Library of Congress has catalogued a paperback edition as follows:
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Henry, Marguerite, 1902-1998.
Justin Morgan had a horse / by Marguerite Henry ; illustration
by Wesley Dennis.—1st Aladdin Books ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
Summary: An unusual work horse raised in Vermont and known originally as “Little Bub” becomes the sire of a famous American breed and takes the name of his owner, Justin Morgan.
I. Justin Morgan (Horse)—Juvenile fiction. 2. Horses—Juvenile fiction. [1. Justin Morgan (Horse)—Fiction. 2. Morgan horse—Fiction. 3. Horses—Fiction.]
I. Dennis, Wesley, ill. II.Title.
PZ10.3.H43Ju 1991
[Fic]-dc20
91-13973
CIP
AC
ISBN 0-689-85279-7
ISBN 978-1-4424-8801-4 (eBook)
Table of Contents
Dedication
Foreword
Chapter 1: Joel Meets Little Bub
Chapter 2: A Fuzzy Shadow
Chapter 3: Northward to Vermont
Chapter 4: Horse-Trader Hawkes
Chapter 5: Pa Gets an Idea
Chapter 6: Seven Years! Seven Years!
Chapter 7: A Stranger Knocking
Chapter 8: The Pulling Bee
Chapter 9: Stronger’n a Ox
Chapter 10: A Challenge from New York
Chapter 11: High-Duck Dandies
Chapter 12: Out of the Satchel
Chapter 13: Bub Travels the Singing Circuit
Chapter 14: The Auction Block
Chapter 15: Little Bub Lost
Chapter 16: “I’ll Go to Plattsburg!”
Chapter 17: A Whinny in the Night
Chapter 18: Justin Morgan and the President
Acknowledgments
Books Consulted
Copyright
Marguerite Henry, Justin Morgan Had a Horse
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