TOM. 



This happened in the good old days, 



Before Budd Doble came 

 To Yankee land, with Goldsmith Maid, 



And his "catarrhal name." 



Uncle Si always remarked that a balky horse was 

 annoying, and there are still a few people in the world 

 who will believe him. I at one time had one that was 

 just the reverse and one that I shall remember as long 

 as I live. In the spring of 186- I drove a medicine 

 wagon out of Springfield, my orders being to go west 

 and keep going until I reached Detroit or thereabouts. 

 I had a wagon full of medicine that would cure any- 

 thing from a cold to hydrophobia, a fine set of harness 

 and a rather shabby pair of horses. They had been 

 over the road many a time, and I told the boss, when 

 I climbed over the wheel, both of them needed trad- 

 ing. He did not object to matters of that kind so 

 long as the wagon could keep on the move and a man 

 came home with as good a pair as he went out with, 

 which would be a very difficult matter unless he came 

 back on the cars. I never heard of any of the drivers 

 rendering an account for boot except when they 

 traded in medicine, and by keeping awake a man with 

 an eye for a horse could occasionally make a dollar. 

 As spring slipped into summer, my wagon rolled over 

 the Berkshire hills, across New York State, and the 

 strip of Pennsylvania on which Erie is located, into 

 Ohio. I do not remember now how many times I 

 traded horses or swapped one for two, tieing the odd 



