CHAPTER XV 



ELIJAH BULLWAIST, THE BLACKSMITH 



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ASTING our eye over the 

 field, the next character that 

 greets is one of whom we 

 before spoke — EHjah Bull- 

 waist, the Blacksmith. Were 

 it not for the shagginess of 

 his pony's coat and the red- 

 ness of Bullwaist's nose, some 

 apology would be due for 

 keeping them so long ; but 

 neither is likely to take harm by standing. Bullwaist is 

 rightly named, for he is a man of Herculean proportions, six 

 feet two in his stocking feet, broad shouldered, broad backed, 

 and big limbed. How he ever can have the conscience to 

 pile his ponderosity upon that poor, ill-fed, hard-worked, 

 white pony, passes our comprehension. Surely none of the 

 " notables " for the suppression of cruelty to animals can have 

 heard of his performances, or Mr. Thomas would have been 

 after him, " Dicky Martin " in hand. 



It has always appeared to us that the old school of black- 



