376 CHAMP. 



Finally I told him that I would not part with Champ 

 except at three or four times what he was worth, and 

 then if I did let him have him he could not drive him. 



"Now, if there was anything that Lem prided him- 

 self on it was his ability to handle a horse, and, be- 

 tween you and me, he was a clever horseman, but he 

 had never, up to that time, met as peculiar a 

 piece of machinery as was wrapped up in Champ's 

 hide. I learned afterwards how Mary Pickle had 

 told him what a lovely horse Champ was, and how 

 she enjoyed a drive behind him, and all that sort of 

 thing. Lem put this and that together and decided 

 that Mary went driving with Uncle Si, because she 

 was in love with the horse, and that he would have 

 smooth sailing in that quarter if he could only get 

 Champ. I was not cute enough to see through this 

 spider web, but I did know that Champ suited me 

 clear down to the ground, and that I might never get 

 another horse like him. 



"Lem hung on like a bear at a root. I was sick and 

 tired listening to his offers to trade or buy. In an 

 hour or so he went away, and I thought that was the 

 end of it. I was mistaken, as a little after dinner, 

 when I was hitching Champ up for a jog, he walked 

 into the yard and said he would go out with me if I 

 did not object. I could not very well say no, so out 

 we went. Then he started the same old story. If 

 he told me once, he told me twenty times, he had 

 made up his mind not to go home without Champ. 

 Finally something tempted me to lead him on, and 

 after he had offered $400 and his mare, I said, just as 

 a feeler, 'if you will make it $600 you can have him, 

 but if he does not suit you, I am to have the privilege 



