Temperance > Autobiography and personal recollections of John B. Gough

YOUTHFUL DAYS.
19
and the Saxons, about the year 456, on the shore between
Folkestone and Hythe. Whenever we visited the town
we usually went to see the bones. They were quite the
show of the place. I have seen them scores of times.
At this time but little occurred to ruffle the calm surface
of our lives. We did as others do who are poor—fought
for daily bread. In the autumn mother and sister and I
| would go gleaning the ears that fell from the reapers in
the wheat field, and often return loaded with the bundles
of grain thus gathered. Then, some Saturday afternoon,
when mother’s school “didn’t keep,” we would clear all
the furniture from the room (little enough there was), lay
our treasure of wheat on the floor, and with sticks thrash
it out, and winnow it with a pair of bellows. We children
thought it rare fun. But the crowning joy to me was,
when I was permitted to take the bag of grain to the mill,
a mile away. That was an event! I, like all boys, was
fond of riding, and I could often get a ride on a jackass;
but a horse—that was the height of my ambition! On
the occasion of taking our gleaned wheat to the mill, Mr.
Laker was applied to, a day or two before, for the loan of
his white horse; and, till the longed-for morning, I would
think all day, and dream all night, of riding in every
possible posture on a white horse. What a horse that
was! Blind, lame, raw-boned; always hanging his head
as if ashamed of himself; but still, to me, a very Buceph¬
alus ! How exalted a position, seated on the bag thrown
across his back, with the reins of rope in my hands, and
a stout stick; mother and Mary standing admiringly at
the door to see me off! How I would make circuits round
the village to show myself on horseback! Then off to the
mill—deliver the grain—and display my horsemanship;
which I generally did so effectually, that I could hardly
walk for a day or two; for he was a mighty hard trotter.