A HORSE SOLDIER took the utmost pains with his charger. As long
as the war lasted, he looked upon him as his fellow-helper in all
emergencies and fed him carefully with hay and corn. But when
the war was over, he only allowed him chaff1 to eat and made him
carry heavy loads of wood, subjecting him to much slavish
drudgery and ill-treatment. War was again proclaimed, however,
and when the trumpet2 summoned him to his standard, the Soldier
put on his charger its military trappings, and mounted, being
clad in his heavy coat of mail. The Horse fell down straightway
under the weight, no longer equal to the burden, and said to his
master, You must now go to the war on foot, for you have
transformed me from a Horse into an Ass3; and how can you expect
that I can again turn in a moment from an Ass to a Horse?'
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