CHAPTER VI 



WE TAKE POSSESSION 



MY barn was full of horses, but none of them 

 was fit for farm work ; so I engaged a veterinary 

 surgeon to find three suitable teams. By the 

 25th of the month he had succeeded, and I in- 

 spected the animals and found them satisfactory, 

 though not so smooth and smart-looking as I had 

 pictured them. When I compared them, some- 

 what unfavorably, with the teams used for city 

 trucks and delivery wagons, he retorted by say- 

 ing : " I did not know that you wanted to pay 

 $1200 a pair for your horses. These six horses 

 will cost you 1750, and they are worth it." They 

 were a sturdy lot, young, well matched, not so 

 large as to be unwieldy, but heavy enough for 

 almost any work. The lightest was said to 

 weigh 1375 pounds, and the heaviest not more 

 than a hundred pounds more. Two of the teams 

 were bay with a sprinkling of white feet, while 

 the other pair was red roan, and, to my mind, 

 the best looking. 



Four of these horses are still doing service on 

 the farm, after more than seven years. One of 

 the bays died in the summer of '98, and one of the 



