' 'Let's look at your
horse,' says he; so away they went, and a proper sight of people
arter them to look at colt, and when they seed him they sot up such a
larf, I felt e'enamost ready to cry for spite. Says I to myself;
'What can possess the old man to act arter that fashion, I do believe
he has taken leave of his senses.' 'You needn't larf,' says Father,
'he's smarter than he looks; our Minister's old horse, Captain Jack,
is reckoned as quick a beast of his age as any in our location, and
that 'ere colt can beat him for a lick of a quarter of a mile quite
easy; I seed it myself.' Well, they larfed agin louder than before,
and says father, 'If you dispute my word, try me; what odds will you
give?' 'Two to one,' says the owner, 'eight hundred to four hundred
dollars.' 'Well, that's a great deal of money, ain't it,' says
father, 'if I was to lose it I'd look pretty foolish, wouldn't I.
How folks would pass their jokes at me when I went home again. You
wouldn't take that 'ere wagon and harness for fifty dollars of it,
would you?' says he. 'Well,' says the other, 'sooner than disappoint
you, as you seem to have set your mind on losing your money, I don't
care if I do.'
"As soon as it was settled, father drives off to the stables, and
then returns mounted, with a red silk pocket handkerchief tied round
his head, and colt a-looking like himself as proud as a nabob, chock
full of spring like the wire eend of a bran' new pair of trouser
galluses.
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