RUBY. 49 



To become my property was the only thing 

 needed to make him perfect, for Ike was born 

 in a racing stud in Kentucky, and had practised 

 all the arts of the craft, up to the time wheD, be- 

 ing both jockey and " the stakes " in a race he 

 rode, he was lost to a Missouri gentleman of for- 

 tune, and became a body-servant. He was once 

 confidential : — 



"Well, now, Colonel, you see, this is how it 

 was: I hadn't nothin' ag'in my master, — he 

 was a right nice man ; but then, you see, he 

 drinked, and I didn't know what might become 

 of me some time. Then, you see, I knowed this 

 man was stiddy, an' he 'd jess done bought a 

 yallar gal I kinder had a notion for, an' so, — 

 don't ye see why? — well, the hoss could have 

 won the race fast enough, but then, you see, my 

 master, — well, he was a drinkin' kind of a man, 

 an' I thought I might as well fix it. I knowed 

 I was up for stakes, an' that's how I come to 

 Missouri ; I ain't no Missouri man born, but that 's 

 how it was." 



He had become a good body-servant without 

 3 D 



