Hardy's short story, one of his earliest, first appeared in Father Christmas published by The Illustrated London News in 1877. The story was not included in any of the short story collections he subsequently published. Audiobook from The Classic Tales Podcast narrated by B.J. Harrison 123helpme.com: "There is one main character in this story, Hubert. We barely get any description of the physical features of Hubert; however what we do find out is: he is a fourteen year old boy, a ‘yeoman’s son’ with a horse named Jerry. All of them resided in Wessex. A 687 word short story.