"BROOMSTICK." 133 



of beef, were ever relished with more gusto than was that 

 meal. 



After the viands had disappeared, over the consoling, 

 soothing pipe, our course for the day was discussed, and, 

 as the rain had ceased and clouds lifted, giving every pros- 

 pect of fine weather, it was decided that we should remain 

 another night where we were, and in the mean time each 

 start in different directions to seek for a supply of game, 

 to prevent our going supperless to rest, and resuming our 

 journey on the morrow with empty stomachs. 



I had a horse. From his wonderful formation and in- 

 tense ugliness, I dubbed him " Broomstick ;" he was truly 

 a doleful beast to look at; no amount of food seemed to do 

 him any good; he always looked in the last stage of con- 

 sumption, although his capacity of stowage of forage was 

 immense; nor did he ever lose a chance to get a cow-kick 

 at the unwary, or make his teeth meet in the flesh of the 

 too confiding. Broomstick, from having lately had an eas- 

 ier time than my other mount, was selected for the day's 

 work, and with expressions of grief that would break the 

 heart of the most obdurate, he submitted to be saddled, I 

 returning every few minutes to take an extra pull upon the 

 girths, for the villain would expand himself on such occa- 

 sions like a pouter-pigeon, so that when you imagined you 

 had got safely seated, and ready to start, by a succession 

 of the most mulish and awkward buck-jumps, the saddle 

 would get forward beyond where his withers ought to have 

 been, and naught but wonderful skill in the laws of equita- 

 tion or fortune would prevent the rider from kissing moth- 

 er earth. Now Broomstick could go, if you knew how to 

 take it out of him, and that was accomplished by com- 

 mencing with a high hand from the start, and giving him 

 "the brumagems" every pace or two, and twice as often if 

 you felt his back getting up (which he used to roach after 



