till further notice; a Roman nose; a large, prominent eye; a
shaving-brush of a tail; and an irritable temper. She took her
salt through her bridle; but the others trotted up nuzzling and
wickering for theirs, till we emptied it on the clean rocks. They
were all standing at ease, on three legs for the most part, talking
the ordinary gossip of the Back Pasture - about the scarcity of
water, and gaps in the fence, and how the early windfalls tasted
that season - when little Rick blew the last few grains of his
allowance into a crevice, and said:

"Hurry, boys! 'Might ha' knowed that livery plug would be around."

We heard a clatter of hooves, and there climbed up from the ravine
below a fifty-center transient - a wall-eyed, yellow frame-house of
a horse, sent up to board from a livery-stable in town, where they
called him "The Lamb," and never let him out except at night and to
strangers. My companion, who knew and had broken most of the horses,
looked at the ragged hammer-head as it rose, and said quietly:

"Ni-ice beast. Man-eater, if he gets the chance - see his eye.
Kicker, too - see his hocks. Western horse."

The animal lumbered up, snuffling and grunting. His feet showed
that he had not worked for weeks and weeks, and our creatures drew
together significantly.

"As usual," he said, with an underhung sneer - "bowin' your heads
before the Oppressor that comes to spend his leisure gloatin' over
you."