to the present circumstances, but our mutual glorious past - when
you could carry a pretty girl to market hahnsome, an' let her knit
all the way on account o' the smoothness o' the motion?" said Tweezy.

"Kin you keep your feet through the West River Bridge, with the
narrer-gage comin' in on one side, an' the Montreal flyer the other,
an' the old bridge teeterin' between?" said the Deacon. "Kin you
put your nose down on the cow-catcher of a locomotive when you're
waitin' at the depot an' let 'em play 'Curfew shall not ring
to-night' with the big brass bell?"

"Kin you hold back when the brichin' breaks? Kin you stop fer orders
when your nigh hind leg's over your trace an' ye feel good of a
frosty mornin'?" said Nip, who had only learned that trick last
winter, and thought it was the crown of horsely knowledge.

"What's the use o' talk in'?" said Tedda Gabler, scornfully. "What
kin ye do?"

"I rely on my simple rights - the inalienable rights o' my
unfettered horsehood. An' I am proud to say I have never, since
my first shoes, lowered myself to obeyin' the will o' man."

"'Must ha' had a heap o' whips broke over yer yaller back," said
Tedda. "Hev ye found it paid any?"

"Sorrer has been my portion since the day I was foaled. Blows an'
boots an' whips an' insults - injury, outrage, an' oppression. I
would not endoor the degradin' badges o' servitood that connect us
with the buggy an' the farm-wagon."