OR, THE AVORLD HAS CHANGED. 99 



Proceeding on ray journey, about noon, I overtook a small, 

 stoop-shouldered, freckled-faced, red-haired man, about forty 

 years of age, wearing a wool hat, blue jeans coat, coperas 

 breeches and home-tanned shoes, without socks. He was 

 jogging along in a sort of lazy mixed walk and trot, on a sluggish 

 looking old sway-back, clay-bank mare, with flax main and 

 tail. Feeling lonely I accommodated my gait to suit that of 

 the stranger, and we soon became engaged in conversation. 

 Several times I noticed the man eyeing mj'- handsome filly, and 

 after awhile he ventured to remark: "That's a right snug 

 critter you've got there, how'd you like to swap her? " Swap 

 for what?" I asked, astonished at his impudence, "you don't 

 mean for that old thing you are riding there do you, why, I 

 wouldn't have her as a gift?" He mildly replied that he was 

 not at all surprised at my hastily formed conclusion; that he took 

 no offence at what I had said ; that it would not always do to 

 judge by appearances; that his critter was calculated to deceive 

 more experienced heads than mine ; said some of the most 

 famous horses in the world were the most unsightly looking; 

 said his critter had royal blood coursing through her veins ; 

 called my attention to her pointed ears, wide nostrils, the full 

 swelling veins, the symetry of her limbs; said she was now 

 with foal by the celebrated horse Steel (a horse that I had 

 seen, and the most famous horse of that day) and that the colt 

 would bring five hundred dollars when it was six months old. 

 I listened with wonder at all this rig-a-ma-role, somewhat 

 staggered as he talked on, but still unconvinced ; after awhile 

 I ventured to make an objection to the color of the mare. He 

 ■quickly replied that he was glad I spoke of that, as her color 

 was one of the best evidences of her value, and asked me if I 

 had notj^myself, observed that all circus horses were selected 



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