“Everything in This Country Must” is a short story written by Colum McCann. The story is told through the eyes of a woman named Katie reflecting on a past event that occurred when she was fifteen. It begins with Katie helping her father trying to save the family draft horse from a flood. She tells of her father wanting her to just let the horse drown instead of receiving help from the soldiers:
Drop the rope, girl, but I didn’t. I kept it tight holding the draft horse’s neck above the water, and all the time Father was saying but not saying, Drop it, please, Katie, drop it, let her drown.
Her father admits to not wanting help but receives it from the soldiers anyway; he would rather allow his horse to die than receive help from them. Katie tells of how her father saw the horse when being saved:
His eyes were steady looking at the river, maybe seeing Mammy and Fiachra in each eye of the draft horse, staring back.
He feels for the horse almost as much as he did for Mammy and Fiachra, which is why he would allow the horse to be relieved by just allowing it to die. Which is why in the end, he spares the horse pain for her father to handle his own grief.