396 RACi^ALONG 



"Well, I must come to how I came to part with 

 my colt. I had refused many offers. When he was 

 seventeen-months-old Ezekiah Hoyt and Seely Ed- 

 sall came over from Goshen to see him. He was in 

 the lot, and I was from home. They turned a sheep 

 dog at him, but it would not work; they could not 

 get him to run. 'I must own that colt, Hoyt,' said 

 Edsall, 'no matter what he costs.' 



''Hoyt met me on the road, as I returned and said, 

 Tut a price on your colt, Sutton.' Now I had refused 

 him several times before, bearing in mind what 

 Young had said. 'If you get a colt he will make your 

 fortune, and if you ever sell him you will have no 

 luck.' 'Prophetic words, sir,' said the old man sadly, 

 'for I have had nothing but ill luck in every venture 

 since.' 



"Well, thinking $300 would be enough to scare 

 Hoyt, and thinking to make my bluff' sure, I said to 

 Hoyt: 'If you must have a price I will say $500.' 

 'The colt is mine, and the money yours,' was the 

 unexpected reply. 



"What could I do? I had passed my word and 

 there ended my connection with the little colt I had 

 so carefully reared. Hoyt and Edsall owned him 

 jointly at first but pretty soon Edsall bought Hoyt's 

 half. He kept him five years, serving over a hundred 

 mares a season the last three years and using him 

 on the road all the time, a hard life of it, and one 

 that would have killed any ordinary horse. Many a 

 time I have seen Seely Edsall driving Abdallah on 

 the road at a stiff 2:40 gait." 



