{"product_id":"2940013770614","title":"The First Horseman","description":"Now, in the days when Ugh-lomi killed the great cave bear there was\u003cbr\u003elittle trouble between the horses and men. Indeed, they lived apart--\u003cbr\u003ethe men in the river swamps and thickets, the horses on the wide\u003cbr\u003egrassy uplands between the chestnuts and the pines. Sometimes a pony\u003cbr\u003ewould come straying into the clogging marshes to make a flint-hacked\u003cbr\u003emeal, and sometimes the tribe would find one, the kill of a lion, and\u003cbr\u003edrive off the jackals, and feast heartily while the sun was high.\u003cbr\u003eThese horses of the old time were clumsy at the fetlock and dun-coloured,\u003cbr\u003ewith a rough tail and big head. They came every spring-time\u003cbr\u003enorth-westward into the country, after the swallows and before the\u003cbr\u003ehippopotami, as the grass on the wide downland stretches grew long.\u003cbr\u003eThey came only in small bodies thus far, each herd, a stallion and two\u003cbr\u003eor three mares and a foal or so, having its own stretch of country,\u003cbr\u003eand they went again when the chestnut trees were yellow and the wolves\u003cbr\u003ecame down the Wealden mountains.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt was their custom to graze right out in the open, going into cover\u003cbr\u003eonly in the heat of the day. They avoided the long stretches of thorn\u003cbr\u003eand beechwood, preferring an isolated group of trees, void of\u003cbr\u003eambuscade, so that it was hard to come upon them. They were never\u003cbr\u003efighters; their heels and teeth were for one another, but in the clear\u003cbr\u003ecountry, once they were started, no living thing came near them,\u003cbr\u003ethough perhaps the elephant might have done so, had he felt the need.\u003cbr\u003eAnd in those days man seemed a harmless thing enough. No whisper of\u003cbr\u003eprophetic intelligence told the species of the terrible slavery that\u003cbr\u003ewas to come, of the whip and spur and bearing-rein, the clumsy load\u003cbr\u003eand the slippery street, the insufficient food, and the knacker's\u003cbr\u003eyard, that was to replace the wide grass-land and the freedom of the\u003cbr\u003eearth.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDown in the Wey marshes Ugh-lomi and Eudena had never seen the horses\u003cbr\u003eclosely, but now they saw them every day as the two of them raided out\u003cbr\u003efrom their lair on the ledge in the gorge, raiding together in search\u003cbr\u003eof food. They had returned to the ledge after the killing of Andoo;\u003cbr\u003efor of the she-bear they were not afraid. The she-bear had become\u003cbr\u003eafraid of them, and when she winded them she went aside. The two went\u003cbr\u003etogether everywhere; for since they had left the tribe Eudena was not\u003cbr\u003eso much Ugh-lomi's woman as his mate; she learnt to hunt even--as\u003cbr\u003emuch, that is, as any woman could. She was indeed a marvellous woman.\u003cbr\u003eHe would lie for hours watching a beast, or planning catches in that\u003cbr\u003eshock head of his, and she would stay beside him, with her bright eyes\u003cbr\u003eupon him, offering no irritating suggestions--as still as any man. A\u003cbr\u003ewonderful woman!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAt the top of the cliff was an open grassy lawn and then beechwoods,\u003cbr\u003eand going through the beechwoods one came to the edge of the rolling\u003cbr\u003egrassy expanse, and in sight of the horses. Here, on the edge of the\u003cbr\u003ewood and bracken, were the rabbit-burrows, and here among the fronds\u003cbr\u003eEudena and Ugh-lomi would lie with their throwing-stones ready, until\u003cbr\u003ethe little people came out to nibble and play in the sunset. And while\u003cbr\u003eEudena would sit, a silent figure of watchfulness, regarding the\u003cbr\u003eburrows, Ugh-lomi's eyes were ever away across the greensward at those\u003cbr\u003ewonderful grazing strangers.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn a dim way he appreciated their grace and their supple nimbleness.\u003cbr\u003eAs the sun declined in the evening-time, and the heat of the day\u003cbr\u003epassed, they would become active, would start chasing one another,\u003cbr\u003eneighing, dodging, shaking their manes, coming round in great curves,\u003cbr\u003esometimes so close that the pounding of the turf sounded like hurried\u003cbr\u003ethunder. It looked so fine that Ugh-lomi wanted to join in badly. And\u003cbr\u003esometimes one would roll over on the turf, kicking four hoofs\u003cbr\u003eheavenward, which seemed formidable and was certainly much less\u003cbr\u003ealluring.","brand":"WDS Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47079723466992,"sku":"2940013770614","price":1.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013770614_p0.jpg?v=1763590040","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013770614","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}