Black Beauty

Later that evening, another ostler brings in another horse. A young man with a pipe, presumably the ostler’s friend, hangs around to chat, but the ostler asks him to put his pipe down and toss hay down from the hayloft. Soon after, James makes one last check on Black Beauty and Ginger. Hours later, Black Beauty wakes up. He’s uncomfortable and can hear Ginger coughing—the barn is filling with smoke, and it's coming from the door to the hayloft. Presently, the second ostler enters the stable, unties the horses, and tries to drag them out of their stalls. Black Beauty refuses to follow; he knows now he was foolish, but at the time, it seems too unsafe to move.

The ostler leaves the barn doors open when he leaves, which makes it easier to breathe—but it makes the crackling sound in the hayloft louder. Soon after, people start shouting “Fire!” and James appears. He’s his usual cheery self as he puts Black Beauty’s bridle on, ties a scarf over Black Beauty’s eyes, and leads him out of the barn. He throws Black Beauty’s lead at a man and runs back into the stable for Ginger. Black Beauty whinnies—and later, Ginger tells him that his whinny is what convinced her to leave her stall.

The stable yard is in chaos as people evacuate horses from various stables and pull carriages out of sheds, just in case the fire spreads. Black Beauty watches the stable door for Ginger as Squire Gordon enters the fray, shouting for James. As a crash comes from the stable, James emerges from the smoke with Ginger. James is coughing and can’t speak. Squire Gordon ushers James and the horses to the street and across the square to another hotel as the fire engine arrives. Just as Black Beauty and Ginger enter their new stalls, they hear the horses stuck in the burning stable shrieking as they die.

In the morning, Black Beauty observes that James looks very proud of himself—Squire Gordon seems proud of him, too. During the day, James returns to the first hotel. When he gets back to the horses, he tells the ostler there that the fire started because a man left his pipe in the hay. He says John’s rule of not allowing pipes in stables should be the rule everywhere. The barn, James shares, was demolished, and two horses died.