A Horse Soldier took the utmost pains with his charger. As long as the war
lasted, he looked upon him as his fellow-helper in all emergencies and fed
him carefully with hay and corn. But when the war was over, he only
allowed him chaff to eat and made him carry heavy loads of wood,
subjecting him to much slavish drudgery and ill-treatment. War was again
proclaimed, however, and when the trumpet summoned him to his
standard, the Soldier put on his charger its military trappings, and mounted,
being clad in his heavy coat of mail. The Horse fell down straightway under
the weight, no longer equal to the burden, and said to his master, “You
must now go to the war on foot, for you have transformed me from a Horse
into an Ass; and how can you expect that I can again turn in a moment from
an Ass to a Horse?
