A shiny coat on a horse is so important, Miss Walsh.

William-Adolphe Bouguereau He walked a few feet and put his hand on another child’s head. She was pulling bandoliers off her tiny shoulders and placing them in a pile. “Maria.” He gently kissed her forehead and she smiled up at him, then immediately went back to the task at hand. “Maria was found at death’s door. She was beaten so badly that she could not walk. Her crime was that she was dipping her fingers into a pot of raw eggs. She was hungry and could not contain herself.” He grinned cynically. “The eggs were being rubbed into the coat of a hacendado’s prize racehorse.” He looked up at her and she thought she could see tears welling in his eyes. “A shiny coat on a horse is so important, Miss Walsh.” The Mule Tamer III, Marta's Quest