THE
OLD JIM
for doctor's bills. Once he fell down on the way to a fire and was dragged a block over the Broadway cobbles ; but he got up without our stopping, and though he was pretty sore, we never reported him, and he got over i t . Sometimes a hose would burst, but J i m didn't care i f only he could turn his head out of the way. Many a shower of falling glass be has stood without flinching, as the scars on his back show, but he was never laid off a day. H a l f a dozen horses that were mated to him have lived their day and died, t r y i n g to pull up even with old J i m . It isn't so long ago they sent us up a spare horse to take the place of one of J i m ' s mates that was off being shod. There was one run, and Jim chewed the young horse's neck to make him keep up his end, afraid we'd lose first water. He was a great fire horse, was J i m . The only trouble he gave was at meal times, which he knew like a clock ; and i f his feed wasn't set down before him on the minute, he made a fuss, pawing at the side of his stall and starting all the other horses to kicking." Possibly Captain Nash was prejudiced. He and J i m had served together in the same house for eleven years. But i f there was anything so very wrong in concealing J i m ' s aging weaknesses, the captain was not the only one to blame. Hugh Bonner, the Chief of the Department, had his down-town quar ters i n Thirty-three's house, and he knew all about J i m , and all about Captain Nash, too, for that matter. Y e t he kept mum. Then there was the Superintendent of Horses : why didn't he do something before ? It is true he had condemned J i m five years ago. This, however, is the way he did i t . After i n specting the horse, he walked up to the cap tain and said : " N a s h , the old J i m horse is getting unfit. I guess I ' l l have to send you a sub stitute." Captain Nash did not say anything. The substitute came, and he accepted the new horse, but he didn't send J i m away. He handed over another horse. N o w the sta bleman did not know the difference, per haps, but the Superintendent did. He must have found that he had been fooled ; and the captain, liable to punishment for disobey ing orders, worried for a week. But nothing came of i t . Possibly the Superintendent reported the case to the Chief. I f he did, it is curious the Chief never mentioned the matter to Captain Nash. A t any rate, the Chief must have known that the J i m horse had been condemned, and he certainly saw
HORSE.
33
the J i m horse afterwards first at many a fire. A year or two later, the Superintendent condemned J i m again, and he did it rather sharply this time. He did not say, " N a s h , the old J i m horse," and so on. He com manded Captain Nash to deliver " r e g i s t e r e d horse N o . 6 0 ; " but after he was out of the door, he paused, turned half around, and said : " H e isn't fit to run to fires, Nash. Y o u better trade him off to me for a good, strong, young horse. Anyhow, P m going to do my duty, and i f you want " The rest was nothing but a grumble which no one could be expected to under stand. The new horse arrived. The cap tain hesitated, till at last he thumped on his desk, and shouted down to the man on watch to transfer to the training stables the worst horse in the house. The fireman who re ceived the order grinned, and delivered the next to the oldest horse, an animal that " n e v e r was no good, nohow." A n d when the trampling of the departing hoofs had died away, the men up-stairs who heard the order stopped the game of cards while one of them went below. He walked around the engine to J i m ' s stall, told him to get back, though the horse was not more than half a foot over the line, then returned to the game. He did not report anything ver bally, but the others looked in his face, and resumed the play i n great good humor. Just as they were forgetting the incident, the cap tain came out of his room and passed down stairs. He had to get something out of the feed-room, which is back of the horses. Old Jim tried to attract the captain's attention, but the captain wouldn't notice him. The third time the Superintendent acted, he did not give the captain a chance for any of his tricky horse-trading. He had " r e g i s tered horse N o . 6 0 " removed without talk ing about it, and Captain Nash was at a loss. "I knew what it meant," said the captain afterwards. " W e had a horse here once, the Buck horse. He was a good fire horse, too ; nothing like J i m , but he served faith ful for years, and then went lame in his off hind leg. W e did what we could for him till the inspector got onto it and took him away and sold him at auction. About a year after that, when we were all standing out i n front of the house one day, an old, brokendown, lame horse came along the street, pull ing one of those carts that go around col lecting clam-shells. He balked right oppo site the door. W e thought at first he was tired, and I guess he was. Maybe some of