First Thoroughbreds of the North 131 



embraced the offer, the amount was made out 

 at some eighty or ninety pounds (a long price 

 in those days and at her age, about eighteen), 

 and the mare was his. They had then advanced 

 some six or eight miles on their way to Peters- 

 burg, and the old gentleman had to return to my 

 father's to get his pay ; silver was much the order 

 of the then times ; the order was necessarily 

 given to return. And here, sir, let me relate 

 what I well remember to have heard them speak 

 of as the fact, that the wonderful, the remarkable 

 Miss Slamerkin (eighteen years old as above), 

 heavy in foal, daughter of the wonderful, ' the 

 old Cub mare,' turned her tail upon her back, 

 took the lead in the onset, sped her way back 

 to my father's, was the first to enter a gate that 

 had been left open, strained down to the stables, 

 and around and around, in advance of the gentle- 

 men some half an hour or more. A day or 

 two was again spent in their usual happy way; 

 and the old gentleman left us as reluctantly as 

 we were unwilling to give him up. 



" I well remember, for I could not leave his 

 chair and side, all the most prominent remarks 

 about the old mare. She was said to have been 

 the very best racer of her day — the first nag that 



