One said, 'That's a plaguy nice lookin' colt that old
feller has arter all.' 'That horse will show play for it yet,' says a
third; and I heard one feller say, 'I guess that's a regular Yankee
trick, a complete take in.' They had a fair start for it, and off
they sot; father took the lead and kept it, and won the race, though
it was a pretty tight scratch, for father was too old to ride colt,
he was near about the matter of seventy years old.
"Well, when the colt was walked round after the race, there was an
amazin' crowd arter him, and several wanted to buy him; but, says
father, 'How am I to get home without him, and what shall I do with
that 'ere wagon and harness so far as I be from Slickville.' So he
kept them in talk, till he felt their pulses pretty well, and at
last he closed with a Southerner for seven hundred dollars, and we
returned, having made a considerable good spec of colt. Says father
to me, 'Sam,' says he, 'you seed the crowd a-follerin' the winnin'
horse, when we came there, didn't you?' 'Yes sir,' said I, 'I did.'
'Well, when colt beat him, no one follered him at all, but come
a-crowdin' about HIM. That's popularity,' said he, 'soon won, soon
lost--cried up sky high one minute, and deserted the next or run
down; colt will share the same fate. He'll get beat afore long, and
then he's done for.
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