THE NEUTRAL GROUND. 21' 



glad that she did, for nobody ever tried the 

 experiment with her again. She is a solid 

 beast eight years old, convex chest and long 

 pasterns, weighs in horse parlance " nine 

 hund'd and a half," with a straight back and 

 high withers built up for the purpose. Her 

 value — well, you can't buy her. 



She was at Irvington, and thither I went in 

 an early morning train from New York, and 

 started at eleven o'clock across the country to 

 reach the old Boston post-road to New Haven, 

 passing through the charming county of 

 Westchester, the region of the " neutral 

 ground " of the Revolution, made famous by 

 the alternate occupancy of the American and 

 British armies, the wild raids of the cowboys, 

 the capture of Andre, and the romance of 

 Cooper which has immortalized reality by 

 clothing it in the garb of that enduring fiction, 

 " The Spy." 



We were informed that we were now pass- 

 ing through the property of an eminent finan- 

 cier. Before he became the purchaser of these 

 lands along the New York City and Northern 

 Railroad reports were industriously circulated 

 that fever and ague prevailed to an alarming 

 extent. The lands were consequently sold at 



