BUYING A HORSE.


"And you know this Deacon Elkins to be a thoroughly reliable man in
every respect?"

"Indeed, I do," said honest Nathan Robbins. "He is the very soul of
honor; couldn't do a mean thing. I'd trust him with all I have."

"Well, I'm glad to hear this, for I'm just going to buy a horse of
him."

"A horse?"

"Yes--a horse!"

"Then I don't know anything about him!"

A TRUE TALE.

After furnishing my house in the aforesaid economical and nondescript
fashion, came the trials of "planting time." This was such an unfragrant
and expensive period that I pass over it as briefly as possible. I saw
it was necessary in conformity with the appalling situation to alter one
vowel in my Manorial Hall. The haul altogether amounted to eighteen
loads besides a hundred bags of vilely smelling fertilizers. Agents for
every kind of phosphates crowded around me, descanting on the needs of
the old land, until I began to comprehend what the owner meant by
"keeping it up." With Gail Hamilton, I had supposed the entire land of