like."

Jeff laughed. "See here, aunty; I'm goin' to take your advice. You know
Rabbit?"

"The mare?"

"Yes; I'm going to sell her. The blacksmith offered me a hundred dollars
for her last week."

"Ef ye'd done that a month ago, Jeff, ez I wanted ye to, instead o'
keeping the brute to eat ye out o' house and home, ye'd be better off."
Aunt Sally never let slip an opportunity to "improve the occasion," but
preferred to exhort over the prostrate body of the "improved." "Well, I
hope he mayn't change his mind."

Jeff smiled at such suggestion regarding the best horse within fifty
miles of the "Half-way House." Nevertheless he went briskly to the
stable, led out and saddled a handsome grey mare, petting her the while,
and keeping up a running commentary of caressing epithets to which
Rabbit responded with a whinny and playful reaches after Jeff's red
flannel sleeve. Whereat Jeff, having loved the horse until it was
displaced by another mistress, grew grave and suddenly threw his arms
around Rabbit's neck, and then taking Rabbit's nose, thrust it in the
bosom of his shirt and held it there silently for a moment. Rabbit
becoming uneasy, Jeff's mood changed too, and having caparisoned himself
and charger in true vaquero style, not without a little Mexican dandyism
as to the set of his doeskin trousers, and the tie of his red sash, put
a sombrero rakishly on his curls and leaped into the saddle.