Black Beauty

Black Beauty’s new master is harsh and cruel. His name is Nicholas Skinner, and Black Beauty believes he’s the same Skinner Seedy Sam drove for. In Skinner’s stable, Black Beauty finally learns how miserable it is to be a cab horse. Skinner is awful to his men, who are in turn awful to the horses. The horses work on Sundays, and sometimes, large groups of men hire a cab for the day to go 15 miles into the country. This hard work without rest makes Black Beauty feverish and exhausted. His driver is cruel too, and has something sharp at the end of his whip—and he whips Black Beauty on the head and belly. Black Beauty doesn’t fight back. Ginger was right: “men are the strongest.” Black Beauty wants to die.

Black Beauty’s wish to die almost comes true one day when his driver picks up a family of four and their luggage at the train station. The boy and his mother get in the cab, but the little girl tells her father that Black Beauty looks too weak to carry them and all their luggage. The driver insists Black Beauty is fine—even when the porter suggests the man engage a second cab for the luggage. The girl begs her father to reconsider, but he scolds her and tells her to get in the cab.

Black Beauty hasn’t had food or rest since morning, but he does his best. At Ludgate Hill, though, the load is just too much—and his feet slip out from under him. He hits the ground hard and struggles to breathe. Black Beauty figures he’ll die as he listens to angry voices and the little girl saying it’s her family’s fault that Black Beauty fell. People release Black Beauty from the cab and after a while, Black Beauty feels himself coming back. A kind man convinces Black Beauty to stand and settles him in a nearby stable with a mash.

Black Beauty returns to Skinner’s stables in the evening. The farrier who examines him says Black Beauty is just overworked and would recover after six months of rest in a meadow, but Skinner snaps that he can’t do that—he works horses until they give out and then sells them for whatever he can get. Since Black Beauty’s breathing is still fine, the farrier suggests that Skinner rest Black Beauty until a horse sale in two weeks. Unwillingly, Skinner tells the stable man to feed Black Beauty well. Two weeks of delicious food and rest makes Black Beauty think he’d like to keep living. When he’s led to the sale, he keeps his head up and hopes for the best.