Thomas loves Harry, his father's farm horse, and takes every spare moment to train him like one of the horses in wild west shows. But when Harry's father buys a tractor, then a car, then a truck, there's no more work for Harry on the farm. He's loaned to a neighbor, where he's left to mope in a stall. Finally, Harry uses his nose and finds a new job, but can Thomas bear to part with Harry?

In spite of the somewhat cutesy premise, the story offers a fairly realistic picture of the move from horse-drawn to mechanized farm work. With the advent of a motor driven tractor which didn't need to be fed, cooled, or covered in the rain, and which could work without a rest, suddenly horses were excess mouths to feed on working farms across the United States. Thomas' decision isn't made lightly, in spite of his age. ( )