Young Inventor

"Are we slaves?"

"Neigh, neigh, neigh!"

All the horses in the Good-Steeds meeting rose up on two legs and waved their forelegs in denial. "Neigh, neigh, neigh!" They were certainly not slaves!

"Then why must we be haltered or saddled? Why must we take humans where they want to go? We shall be free!"

"Does this remind you of George Orwell's 'Animal Farm'?" one anxious mare in the back row whispered to the other.

"Yes, it does, but having read the book we'll make sure we don't get taken in. Now hush."

The horses were trotting out of the garden where the Good-Steeds met each month. But this time, none of them went back home to their owners and the owner's carriage. Each horse wandered where it pleased. Some went to the park, some went to the tennis court to watch the humans at play, some went to the bakery where the baker always gave them sugar.

"I'll be late for court if we don't start the carriage soon," the lawyer said.

"I'll be late for class if we don't start the carriage soon," remarked the teacher.

"I'll be late opening the gates if we don't start the carriage soon," lamented the Chief Guard of the Palace.

But nobody could start their carriage -- the horses that drew them were conspicuous in their absence.

The children of the town were the cleverest people there. Children are usually the cleverest because they haven't yet had their brains fogged by college or office.

"It's horseless carriage day," said one little girl. "We'll just have to start the carriages without any horses."

"I know how!" exclaimed her best friend, a slightly older girl. "I've been inventing this in my playhouse for months!"

She went over to her playhouse and brought out something she had made herself - an internal combustion engine. "Let's try it!"

They tossed a couple of coins and the lawyer won, so they attached it to his carriage.

"Now," the older little girl said, giving it a tweak here and a shove there, "you may ride!"

Lo and behold the carriage was moving! The lawyer whooped with joy. "I'll win that million dollar suit yet!" he cried out.

"Wow, that must be one expensive tailor, to stitch a million dollar suit," the younger little girl said to herself.

Everyone crowded round the older little girl. They congratulated her and asked her to make an internal combustion engine for each of them. She was very professional and took all their orders down in a little notebook. Soon, the whole town was riding around in horseless carriages.

And what about the horses?

Some of them went wild and lived happily in the wilderness. Others, who had gotten too used to human beings to abandon them completely got themselves good jobs in the fairground and polo fields.

So everyone lived happily ever after.