But I
might be smartened up a little!"
"Oh, if that is all you want I dare say I can help you," said Basil,
jumping up and running to the cupboard. "Here's your tail, anyway! and
here's a bottle of liquid glue too. Now I'll look for your eye."
"You know," went on the old horse, "I heard the mother saying the other
day that she would send me back to my old home if I were not so shabby."
Basil, who had found the missing eye, was now fixing it in its place
with plenty of glue, which ran down and dropped off the horse's nose.
Basil was sure he saw a tear drop from the other eye.
"Does it hurt?" he asked sympathetically.
"Oh, I don't mind that," said the horse. "It is like old times to be
hurt by a little boy; besides, one must always suffer if one would look
fine."
"Yes; nurse says something like that when I cry while she combs my
hair," said Basil.
"Robbie didn't cry to have his hair combed," said the horse shortly.
"He didn't even cry when the soap was in his eyes. By now he has grown
into a brave man! When he fell off me and made his leg bleed he said
it was nothing, and just got on me again. But he did cry when he
parted from me."
"Well, he was a coward _once_, anyway."
"No, he wasn't," snorted the horse. "It isn't cowardly to cry because
you are leaving some one you love."
"All the same, don't toss your head like that, or your eye will drop
out again," cried Basil warningly. "But you may go on telling me about
Robbie.
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