CHAPTER X 



HOW SOME PEOPLE BUY THEIR HORSES 

 AND HOW SOME ARE SOLD 



" The ways of a man with a maid be strange, 

 But simple and tame 

 Compared to the ways of a man with a horse, 

 When buying or seHing the same." 



"^ ■ '^HERE is a horse outside, miss, waitin' 

 I on ye. I'd say he'd match ye welL" 

 JL An equine treasure stands at the door. 

 Someone young and fooHsh not aware then that 

 the man who has to sell has many things to say, 

 rushes to see it. 



A big brown mare, upstanding, and on the 

 common side — we rode commoners in those days ; 

 it was my first purchase — ^with two raw places in 

 her hocks. 



Curbs of course were dimly known of then. I 

 was seventeeen. 



" What's the matter with her hocks, Ryan ? — 

 fearfully, because I wanted the mare so badly." 



"She skelped them, miss, agin a bare board in 

 the stable." 



Prompt purchase of the brown. She was the 

 runaway which I spoke of, and the clever dealer 



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