160 THE MYSTERY EXPLAINED. 



" She's knocked up," replied the matter-of-fact guest. 



" What ! dear me, again in that interesting situation ? " 



" Oh, good gracious ! " I cried to myself, as I turned 

 away to conceal my great inclination to merriment ; 

 " now I know what it was that I said to my pretty com 

 panion in the buggy. ' Well, did you ever ? no I never ; ' 

 hang me, but I will get an American dictionary, and if 

 there is not one in print I'll publish one." 



The good effect of my pretending that I would not buy 

 horses, on account of the miserable and extortionately 

 priced quadrupeds that had been shown me, was soon 

 made manifest, for there were several animals of a better 

 shape, and at less money, brought to the door of the 

 Planter's House. 



"Well," I said to one of the riders, " let me see the 

 action of your horse ; " when, holding fast on to a single 

 sharp bit, too tight at the cheeks for comfort, the animal's 

 head imprisoned by a needless martingale, and half stran 

 gled by a throat-lash strained up to the highest hole, I 

 saw pass before me a horse with the most disjointed, 

 agonized, and inexplicably complicated action I ever saw 

 so unnatural and complicated that I could not discover 

 where the ailments in nature were. 



"Well," I said, "that is the rummest brute to go I 

 ever saw " I used that homely phraseology because it 

 suited the men I spoke to " he's lame all over." 

 " Lame ! " cried the rider, " guess you're pretty consider 

 able out there ; thought you'd like a ' pacer ; ' hoss can go 

 anyhow, pacing, loping, trotting, shambling, niggling, 

 ambling, or what not, and run slick over all the buffaloes 

 on the { peraries.' ' (It is the custom of the country to 

 pronounce the word prairie as if it was spelt with three 

 syllables.) "Well, then," I replied, "let me see the 



