so he said:

"I do not mean to ask if the horse is ill-looking, but is he skittish?"

"If marster means by that will he throw him off, I don’t think he will as
long as I’m on him, but sometimes he is a leetle contrary like. Reckon
marster ain’t much used to ridin’."

By this time they had reached the gate spoken of by Mr. Edson. To Mr.
Wilmot’s great surprise the horse walked tip to it and tried to open it
with his mouth! Mr. Wilmot was so much amused that he would not suffer Jim
to get down and open the gate, as he wished to see if the horse could do
it.

"Oh, yes, marster, he’ll do it easy," said the negro; and sure enough, in
a moment the well-trained animal lifted the latch and pushed open the
gate! But it was a rickety old thing, and before Prince had got fairly
through it tumbled down, hitting his heels and causing him to jump
sideways, so as to leave Mr. Wilmot riding the gate and Jim Crow in quiet
possession of the saddle! With a great effort Jim forced down his desire
to scream and merely showed twenty-eight very large, white teeth.

Springing from the horse he offered to assist Mr. Wilmot to mount again,
but he had no inclination to do so. He preferred walking the rest of the
way, he said, and as he could now easily find the house, Jim could return
home. This was not what Jim wanted. He had anticipated a nice time in
relating his adventures to Mr. Middleton’s negroes, but as Mr. Wilmot
slipped a quarter into his hand, he felt consoled for the loss of his
"yarn"; so mounting Prince again, he gave his old palm leaf three
flourishes round his head, and with a loud whoop, started the horse with a