this earth to be pretty much the same age until I adopted the
"abandoned." This I found was fairly senile in its worthless
decrepitude.

My expenditure was something prodigious.

Yes, "planting time" was a nightmare in broad daylight, but as I look
back, it seems a rosy dream, compared with the prolonged agonies of
buying a horse!

All my friends said I must have a horse to truly enjoy the country, and
it seemed a simple matter to procure an animal for my own use.

Livery-stable keepers, complaisant and cordial, were continually
driving around the corner into my yard, with a tremendous flourish and
style, chirking up old by-gones, drawing newly painted buggies,
patched-up phaetons, two-seated second-hand "Democrats," high wagons, low
chaises, just for me to try. They all said that seeing I was a lady and
had just come among 'em, they would trade easy and treat me well. Each
mentioned the real value, and a much lower price, at which I, as a
special favor, could secure the entire rig. Their prices were all
abominably exorbitant, so I decided to hire for a season. The dozen
beasts tried in two months, if placed in a row, would cure the worst
case of melancholia. Some shied; others were liable to be overcome by
"blind staggers"; three had the epizootic badly, and longed to lie down;
one was nearly blind. At last I was told of a lady who desired to leave
her pet horse and Sargent buggy in some country home during her three
months' trip abroad.

Both were so highly praised as just the thing that I took them on