408 LIFE WITH THE TEOTTEES. 



course wlien 2:17|^ was hung out there was tremendous ex- 

 citement and a crowd of my friends rushed out to congratu- 

 late me on what I had done. Mr. Fawcett, who owned 

 Dexter, was a very quiet man, not given to exhibiting his 

 emotions in a marked degree, but all the same I saw that 

 he was very much x^leased. As soon as the excitement had 

 in some measure abated it was announced from the judges' 

 stand that Dexter had been sold to Mr. Robert Bonner for 

 $33,000 and after filling a few more engagements which had 

 previously been made for him he was delivered to that gen- 

 tleman and remained his property until the day of his death, 

 which occurred during the last year. 



A good deal has been said at various times to the effect 

 that Dexter was a vicious horse, and j)eople Avho saw him 

 in his stable generally went away with that idea firmly 

 impressed on their minds. As a matter of fact Dexter was 

 not nearly as bad as he pretended to be. It is true that if 

 a person went into his stall he would run at them and if 

 they retreated would follow them, although I do not think 

 that even then he would have injured anybody. It was 

 simply a bluff on his part, that trick of rushing at people, 

 and he would stop quickly enough if a man stood his ground 

 and threw up his hand at him. He was certainly not a 

 pleasant -tempered horse, but I should not class him as a 

 vicious animal. Like a great many other horses he had his 

 favorites among men, and while to most people he w^as 

 cross, he conceived strong affection for Peter Conover, his 

 groom, and would j)ay not the slightest attention to him 

 when he w^as in the stall. In fact Conover slej)t in the stall, 

 which is pretty good evidence that Dexter never had any 

 intention of harming b im. I have said that Dexter was an i n- 

 telligent horse, and he was also a fanciful fellow, one notion 

 of his that comes to my mind illustrating this very w^ell. 

 Whenever Ave w^anted to take Dexter through the streets of 

 a town or city we would put a boy on his back and then he 

 would lead along as soberly as any horse you ever saw, but 

 if you tried to take him over the same route without the boy 



