horse, and he certainly took no notice of a gun fired 

 under his nose or from his back which was all the 

 test I could apply at the time ; and then his legs were 

 quite sound ; his feet were excellent ; he had lost no 

 teeth yet ; and he was in tip top condition. What 

 more could one want ? 



" He looks rather a fool of a horse ! " I had remarked 

 dubiously to Joey the Smith, who was * willin' to let 

 him go,' and I can recall now the peculiar glint in 

 Joey's eye and the way he sort of steadied himself 

 with a little cough before he answered feelingly : 



" He's no fool, sonny ! You won't want to get a 

 cleverer horse as long as you live ! " 



And no more I did as we used to say ! 



Snowball had one disfigurement, consisting of a 

 large black swelling as big as a small orange behind 

 his left eye, which must have annoyed him greatly ; 

 it could easily have been removed, and many sugges- 

 tions were made on the subject but all of them were 

 firmly declined. Without that lump I should have 

 had no chance against him : it was the weak spot in 

 his defence : it was the only cover under which it 

 was possible to stalk him when he made one of his 

 determined attempts to dodge or desert ; for he could 

 see nothing that came up behind him on the left side 

 without turning his head completely round ; hence 

 one part of the country was always hidden from him, 

 and of course it was from this quarter that we in- 

 variably made our approaches to attack. 



So well did Snowball realise this that when the old 

 villain intended giving trouble he would start off with 



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