inalienable truck an' sech like, an' jest then a Militia gun goes
off; er your wheels hit, an' - waal, you're only another horse ez
can't be trusted. I've been there time an' again. Boys - fer I've
seen you all bought er broke - on my solemn repitation fer a
three-minute clip, I ain't givin' you no bran-mash o' my own fixin'.
I'm tellin' you my experiences, an' I've had ez heavy a load an'
ez high a check's any horse here. I wuz born with a splint on my
near fore ez big's a walnut, an' the cussed, three-cornered
Hambletonian temper that sours up an' curdles daown ez you git
older. I've favoured my splint; even little Rick he don't know what
it's cost me to keep my end up sometimes; an' I've fit my temper in
stall an' harness, hitched up an' at pasture, till the sweat trickled
off my hooves, an' they thought I wuz off condition, an' drenched me."

"When my affliction came," said Tweezy, gently, "I was very near to
losin' my manners. Allow me to extend to you my sympathy, suh."

Rick said nothing, but he looked at Rod curiously. Rick is a
sunny-tempered child who never bears malice, and I don't think he
quite understood. He gets his temper from his mother, as a horse
should.

"I've been there too, Rod," said Tedda. "Open confession's good
for the soul, an' all Monroe County knows I've had my experriences."

"But if you will excuse me, suh, that pusson" - Tweezy looked
unspeakable things at the yellow horse - "that pusson who has
insulted our intelligences comes from Kansas. An' what a ho'se
of his position, an' Kansas at that, says cannot, by any stretch of
the halter, concern gentlemen of our position. There's no shadow