Bobby and the Big Road  by Maud Lindsay

Naming the Horse

A FTER Mother and Bobby had looked at the horse, and patted him, and admired him, Father said:

"Now the next thing to do is to give him a name."

"We might call him Buck or Bright," suggested Bobby, but Father and Mother thought that though there could be no better names than Buck and Bright for the ox-wagon man's oxen, there might be prettier names for a horse.

So they all put on their thinking-caps.

"Don't forget that he is grey," said Mother.

"Or that he has one white foot," said Father.

It was not as easy as it may seem to find a name for the horse.

"We might call him Prince," said Father. "When I was a little boy and lived on a farm I used to ride an old white horse whose name was Prince."

"And I may ride our horse some time," said Bobby.

"Or we might call him Dandy. When I was a little girl, I used to give lumps of sugar to a grey horse very much like this one, and his name was Dandy," said Mother.

"Oh, Mother!" said Bobby, "perhaps our horse likes sugar. Do let me get him a lump."

The horse took the lump of sugar right out of Bobby's hand, and liked it so well that Bobby had to get him another.

The horse took the lump of sugar right out of Bobby's hand.

Father said they might name him Sweet-Tooth, but, of course, that was a joke.

Mother liked pretty soft names like Bonny, and Laddie, Father liked spirited names like Rocket and Meteor; and Bobby liked all the names. Whenever Father or Mother said, "Suppose we call him"—this or that, Bobby was sure to chime in: "Oh, yes, let's."

"What shall it be? What shall it be? Dick or Dobbin, Wizard or Greylocks?" chanted Father, and what do you think? When he said "Greylocks," the grey horse that had been standing quietly by all the while, threw up his head and neighed joyfully.

"There," said Father, "he has chosen his own name." So the horse was called Greylocks ever after.