I'm Black Beauty, a male horse. Before I was taken to Mr Gordon, my mother Duchess spoke to me, "All young horses have to leave mothers. Whatever happens, try to be gentle and stay away from bad behaviours."

Then I came to Mr Gordon's house.

In the stable(马厩) next to mine was a little fat grey horse. 

I put my head up and said, "Nice to meet you! What's your name?" He seemed unhappy. "I'm Merrylegs. You are my neighbour?"

I said yes. 

"Well," he continued, "I hope you are well-behaved. I don't like anyone who bites people." Then he went on, "Mr Gordon should be the best owner!"

A tall brown female horse shouted at him, "No one knows how long a good home will last!"

Merrylegs lowered his voice and whispered, "She's Ginger with a bad habit of biting people."

The angry voice came again, "You don't know anything! ____ you would bite too."

"Poor Ginger! What made her so unhappy?" I thought to myself.

The next day when I worked with Ginger, she told the whole story. 

"I was taken away early from Mother and there was no kind master to look after me. My training started with several men forcing me against a wall. One held my nose and another pulled my mouth open to put a bit(马嚼子) in. They never gave me a chance to understand what they wanted."

"How could that be?" I said.

"After the training, I was sold to a man in London, who drove me with a bearing rein(缰绳) . It is a kind of rein that pulls your neck all the way back. Imagine your neck on fire with pain?"

"Horrible!" I cried.

"After that, a gentleman found me and he thought that it was wrong for a fine horse to go bad like that. So I was brought here, not long before you came. We are lucky here, at least they treat us gently," Ginger said.

I felt sorry about her painful experiences which showed exactly why she bit(咬) people. "She was rude to people but she couldn't be that way always. What can I do for her? I couldn't stop thinking about it."

——Adapted from Black Beauty