LIFE WITH THE TROTTERS. 55 



stallion and the mare owned by him, and that their nnion 

 would result in a phenomenon among horses. The dam of 

 Earns was a gray mare, fifteen hands and three inches high, 

 and, with ordinary road work, could trot close to three min- 

 utes, and had x)lenty of spirit and determination — in fact, a 

 little too much to be x^leasant. To show that her physical 

 qualities were of the best, it may be said that she lived to be 

 over thirty^ years old. When the mare' s foal was finally 

 dropped it proved to be a bay colt, long and rangy in contour, 

 with ]3lenty of life and sx)irit. Thus far the old man" s pre- 

 dictions had been fulfilled, for the animal was certainly one' 

 of which any breeder might be i)roud. From the day of its 

 birth it was treated differently from any other animal on 

 the place. As soon as it had been weaned a suitable stall 

 was built, in a big barn, for its accommodation, and, from 

 that day forth, nothing was left undone to secure its com- 

 fort. Of course, what Mr. Conklin thought of the colt was 

 known to his neighbors, for, in matters of tliis kind, gossip 

 soon spreads throughout a village, and it was not long- 

 before Conklin and his colt were the talk of that end of 

 Long Island. The neighbors had alAvays given Mr. Conk- 

 lin credit for being a steady-going, hard-headed, conserva- 

 tive old man, with plenty of sense and no small amount 

 of caution, and when they listened to his rhaj)sodies about 

 the bay colt, and saw the j^reiDarations he made for its com- 

 fort and convenience, there were not a few of them who 

 really thought that the old gentleman had become a little 

 daft on the subject. 



Of course, their views did not fail to reach him — talk 

 of this kind always comes to the one of whom it is said — 

 but it never altered the old man one iota in his course with 

 regard to the bay colt. He firmly believed that he had the 

 coming trotter, and he was bound that through no omission 

 of his should any mishap befall the animal. When the colt 

 was three years old it was broken to harness, and, during 

 the following summer, took x)art in a little race on the Island, 

 winnino; the contest in about three minutes. Then the 



