OF THE AUTHOR. xxxiii 



" Faster than bclaind the gray mare ? Faster than I ever rode 

 behind any horse I " said he, with his resolute eye aitd grave 

 smile. 



Mr. Bonner was silent as Hiram said this with his hand up- 

 raised ; but we determined to have another word, so we at it again 

 argumentatively. Hiram looked over toward the sea, where the 

 sun was shining in the southern board ; and he said, " If the 

 weather holds good a few days longer, and there is a fair day and 

 track next week, something will be done ! " 



" What do you think it will be ? " 



He smiled and said, " Mr. Bonner wants to know what I think, 

 no doubt ; and I don't mind telling you what I expect, because 

 you never blow things." 



" Yes, yes : now, what do you expect ? " 



" To wipe out all that has ever been done on this island." 



" You mean all that has ever been done in harness ? " 



" All that has ever been done at all. Listen, now : I am not 

 given to exaggeration, and I want to keep within limits. I am 

 confident that I can drive that horse the first half-mile in 1m. 8s. 

 If I can't bring him home the other half in 1m. 10s. I ought to be 

 horsewhipped. That will be 2m. 18s." 



It happened that the weather got cold and bleak immediately 

 after that delicious afternoon, and the course was not in order 

 again ; so the great trial never came off. Knowing the care, 

 knowledge, and vast experience which Hiram brought to the 

 making up of his opinions, and having witnessed the gravity and 

 earnestness with which he advanced this as his settled conviction, 

 we fully believe, that, under favorable circumstances, the chestnut 

 could have done what he said. Therefore, we say that the Au- 

 burn Horse filled his eye at the last moment when there was great 

 ambition and speculation in it ; and was the last, as well as the 

 greatest, in point of speed, of those world-renowned trotters 

 which were stabled in Hiram Woodruff's vast brain and mighty 

 heart. 



During the winter, Hiram's health had not been good. He had 

 several attacks of illness ; and when he got a little better, he 

 would get up and go about as though he had not been sick. This 

 made strong calls upon his constitutional stamina, which had once 

 been as good and perfect as his honesty and pluck. At his birth- 

 day, on the 22d of February, he was well, and singularly happy 



