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91 the slave and the cart horse A SLAVE WHO HAD BEEN beaten by his master came to the hut where his wife waited for him. He lay on a pallet, while the woman took a basin and filled it with water. He spoke after a time, answering the question his wife did not dare ask him: "It happened while I was working in the fields, near sunset. They had overloaded one of the cart horses, and the poor creature was hardly able to stand up. They were beating him with a whip, and although he was pulling with all his strength, he wasn't able to move the load out of the ruts in the field." [ 182 ] "Speak softer," said his wife. "The master might pass and hear you." The slave lowered his voice and continued: "So I went to the master and told him that the horse couldn't carry such a load, and I asked him to take some of it off." "Speak softer," said the woman. She bent over the slave and bathed his back with wet rags. "Speak softer. They'll whip you again if they hear what you're saying." The·slave got up and went to the door, to see that there was nobody outside; then he came and lay once more on the pallet. "I can't stand to see a horse cruelly treated. Horses always seem so helpless and pitiful to me." When the woman spoke, her voice was so soft that it hardly carried to her husband's ears. "You did right," she said. "Horses aren't like us. They can't express themselves or stand up for their rights, and they have no way of defending themselves, like we have." Then they looked into each others' eyes and sighed, thinking how fortunate they were and how cruelly horses were used, for no man can see his own misery clearly, and that is God's great mercy to us all. [ 183 ] ...

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