"'I will answer any questions you ask,' I said, candidly.
"'Is he sound?'
"'Sound as a new hackmetack trenail. Drive it all day, and you can't
broom it one mite or morsel.'
"'Good in harness?'
"'Excellent.'
"'Can he do his mile in two fifteen?'
"'He has done it.'
"'Now between man and man,' sais he, 'what is your reason for selling
the horse, Slick? for you are not so soft as to be tempted by price
out of a first chop article like that.'
"'Well, candidly,' sais I, 'for I am like a cow's tail, straight up
and down in my dealing, and ambition the clean thing.'"
"Straight up and down!" said the doctor aloud to himself; 'straight up
and down like a cow's tail.' Oh Jupiter! what a simile! and yet it
ain't bad, for one end is sure to be in the dirt. A man may be the
straight thing, that is right up and down, like a cow's tail, but hang
me if he can be the clean thing anyhow he can fix it." And he
stretched out his feet to their full length, put his hands in his
trowsers pocket, held down his head, and clucked like a hen that is
calling her chickens. I vow I could hardly help bustin' out a larfin
myself, for it warn't a slow remark of hisn, and showed fun; in fact,
I was sure at first he was a droll boy.
"Well, as I was a sayin', sais I to Mr Parker, 'Candidly, now, my only
reason for partin' with that are horse is, that I want to go away in a
hurry out of Boston clear down to Charleston, South Carolina, and as I
can't take him with me, I prefer to sell him.
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