OF THE AUTHOR. xxxiii 



" Faster than behind the gray mare ? Faster than I c\ er rode 

 behind ani/ horse I " said he, with his resolute eye and grave 

 smile. 



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

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

 wgumentatively. lliram looked over toward the sea, where the 

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

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

 track next week, something will be done I " 

 " What do you think it will be ? " 



He smiled and said, " Mr. Bonner wants to knov/ 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 Im. 8s. 

 If I can't bring liim home the other half in Im. 10s. I ought to be 

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



It happened that the weather got cold and bleak immediately 

 iftcr that deUcious afternoon, and the course was not in order 

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

 knowledge, and vast experience which Hu-am 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 Woodrufl*'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 liis constitutional stamina, which had once 

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

 day, on the 2 2d of February, he was well, and singularly liappy 



