HORSES AND MULES. 157 



day, the quadrupeds, horse and mule, that were at first 

 brought for me to look at were the most worthless, while, 

 at the same time, their owners demanded prices at which 

 I absolutely laughed. " Do these people take me for a 

 fool ? " I asked of one of my friends, " that they think thus 

 to cheat me?" " No," he replied, " not exactly that; 

 but they judge of you by a countryman of yours who 

 preceded you here, and who bought anything that was 

 recommended to him, and, after buying, changed his 

 mind and sold, and then bought again ; so they hope to 

 make something in a similar way out of you." " They 

 will find themselves considerably mistaken," I said, 

 " and, to make short work of it, you had better go about 

 among these people, and tell them that so disgusted am I 

 with the sort of animal shown me in these parts, that I 

 have nearly resolved to ' still hunt,' or stalk the buffalo, 

 and take no horses at all." On the following day I gave 

 strength to this rumour I had thus desired to be promul 

 gated by refusing to look at any of the horses that were 

 brought to the Planter's House. 



During the cessation from business that the execution 

 of my orders, and my pretended resolution of not buying 

 any horses, afforded, I contrived to amuse myself by 

 looking at the wilderness, which, with its wooded scenery, 

 came close upon the verge of Kansas city, and by an ex 

 cursion or two to villages in the vicinity, which latter 

 were, in fact, the last haunts of collected men, ere I broke 

 out into the wilds. The road from the town to these 

 villages through the woods was a very primitive one, 

 from which the trees had not been entirely taken, but left 

 standing to some height in the roots, cut off just high 

 enough for a pair of horses or mules to " straddle," or, in 

 other words, to quarter or go each side of, permitting the 



