Hoof Beats 



major's chestnut, "but h'i s'y» some one had to do 

 it, didn't they?" 



"I beg your pardon, " the gray rephed, with a 

 toss. "Please do not address me as *your beauty,' 

 and remember that I am the first Heutenant's 

 gray." Brutus sniffed. That gray made him 

 tired. 



"Say, pardner," he said, "can't you cut that 

 out? I want to go to sleep." The gray eyed him 

 haughtily. 



"You were addressing me?" he said interrogat- 

 ingly. 



"I was," answered Brutus firmly, with a glint 

 in his eye. The gray ignored him and swished his 

 tail at a persistent fly. 



"S'y, you're the haughty one, ain't you?" the 

 chestnut pursued; " 'e seems a decent enough little 

 chap." The gray ground his teeth — they needed 

 filing. 



"Oh, yes; no doubt you think so, but he strikes 

 me as an extremely common horse." A "Krag" 

 cracked in the distance and a bullet whizzed out 

 of the darkness through the horse lines. 



"There now," the gray pursued wrathfully, 

 "what do you think of that? It's trek, trek, trek 

 all day in the blistering sun through the God- 

 forsaken country, then tied up every night to 

 be shot at. Beastly bad management somewhere, 

 138 



