434 APPENDIX. 



had gone over the farm, and looked at most of the noiabilitiea 

 among the horses. It was a bright day in the early spring, and 

 upon the sunny slope of a hillside we stood together looking at 

 the little old thoroughbred mare Puss, by John Blount She was 

 then the property of my friend Doctor Dixon, and had already 

 bred the mare by Arlington, who afterwards made her famous by 

 throwing a colt foal (who was in time the racehorse Narragansett) 

 to imported Eclipse. I had told Mr. Goldsmith what 0. P. Ilare, 

 of Virginia, used to say about Puss, viz., that she could beat a 

 locomotive from Petersburgh to Richmond, and we had turned 

 our backs upon her and her favorite sunny slope when he said, 

 " Foster, there is another mare here that you must see. She is 

 not a wonder at present, but she is bred close in to old Abdallah, 

 has fine natural action, and great dashes of speed. When she 

 get«5 to going steady she will be a very fast trotter." 



He took me away down the hill to her box in a corner of the 

 barnyard. The mare had a long coat, and was fuller in flesh than 

 I have ever seen her since, but nothing could conceal the excel- 

 lence of her shape, or quench the eloquence of her brilliant eye. 

 There was in it a prophecy of what should in time be compassed, 

 if nothing accidental happened to prevent it ; and she had besides 

 the best and strongest back that ever was beheld in a mare of her 

 size. I was earnest in her praise, and her owner was very confi- 

 dent in his predictions. It is seldom safe to put much faith in 

 the prophetic outgivings of owners of horses. 



" Experience often proves that faith's a cheat; 

 Man fooled by hope, still favors the deceit." 



But in this instance the predictions made by the able and caro* 

 Jul horseman, who tlien u\\ ned the little mure, have been abund- 

 antly fulfilled. Of this hereafter. When Mr. Goldsmith got her 

 fihc was exceedingly wild and timid, manifesting a great and fixed 

 aversion to a check-rein, or a running martingale, and fretting so 

 as to be almost uncontrollable from nervousness. After driving 



