350 Cross Country with Horse and Hound 



clerk, did you say your name was ? " " Yes, sir, from 

 Rochester," said I. " May I give you my card ? " " Don't 

 trouble yourself," said he. " You take my advice, young 

 man : go home and have the cashier lock you in a safe and 

 give him a dollar to lose the key." Nice way to treat a 

 stranger, was n't it ? Well, we came to a check, as you 

 call it/ continued my friend, getting more and more indig- 

 nant at the recollection of the treatment he had received, 

 'when I noticed a fellow standing apart from the rest of 

 the company, looking about as lonesome as I was. So I 

 rode up behind him, and by way of being civil I was about 

 to ask him if it was customary for certain members of the 

 hunt to tie red ribbons in their horses' tails, when his brute 

 of a horse let fly with both hind legs and caught me on the 

 knee. Look how he tore my breeches. Then the rider, 

 too, turned on me and began to swear. " Can't you see 

 where you are going ? " he cried.' 



"I explained to my friend that the red ribbon in a 

 horse's tail was a sign he was a kicker. 



" ' Well,' said Bankclerk, ' why did n't he say so ? Look 

 here, Doctor,' he went on, 'you advised me to go hunting 

 for my health. I have been within an ace of being killed 

 at least half a dozen times in the last two hours. Your 

 treatment is too heroic for me.' 



" ' Well, what next ? ' I inquired, for I wanted to know 

 how it happened he had lost his horse. 



" ' Let me see. Oh, yes ; the next thing that happened, 

 I got hung up on the fence, as you saw, and heard insulting 

 remarks from the field. Then a fellow I was following 

 my horse goes better, I find, if he has a lead well, the 



